Jury Pool Profile

Pennington County, Minnesota

Republican +31.5 (2024)

County seat: Thief River Falls
Judicial district: 9th Judicial District Court
Population (July 2025 estimate): 13,686; Census PEP. The five-year ACS survey average is 13,791.

At a glance

Pennington County is a 13,686-person venue. The county population is 89% White (Census race-alone categories). Median household income is $72,712, $14,408 below the MN state median of $87,120; 21.0% of residents 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher. 5.8% of residents 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, most commonly Spanish and Tagalog. The largest employment sector is Trade, transportation & utilities, at 52.9% of covered employment, average pay $63,745/year. Trailing-12-month unemployment is 5.99%, above the 4.31% state average. The county carried the Republican presidential candidate in 2016, 2020, and 2024, taking 60% to 65% of the vote across the three.

Population: 13,791
Median household income: $77,325
Unemployment: 6.0%

Who sits on a jury?

Predominantly White

≥70% White (race-alone) and <20% Black. This county: 89% / 1%.

Pennington County has a population of 13,791, with a median age of 39.6. By Census race-alone categories, White residents make up 88.6%; Black residents 0.8%. Independently, 4.9% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The median household earns $72,712; 21.0% of residents 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher; 10.7% live below the federal poverty line.

Race & ethnicity

White (non-Hispanic) 12,113 87.8%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 678 4.9%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 87 0.6%
Asian (non-Hispanic) 211 1.5%
Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 580 4.2%
American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 50 0.4%
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 8 0.1%
Some other race (non-Hispanic) 64 0.5%

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Age distribution

Median age 39.6

Under 18 2,866 20.8%
18–24 1,284 9.3%
25–44 3,563 25.8%
45–64 3,413 24.7%
65 and over 2,665 19.3%

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Income & poverty

Median household income: $72,712; 90% interval $66,037–$79,387; −$14,408 vs MN · 52nd of 87
Below poverty line: 10.7%; 90% interval 8.5%–12.9%; +1.4 pp vs MN · 38th of 87

U.S. Census SAIPE 2024

Economic context

Trade & transportation anchored

Largest sector in BLS QCEW: Trade, transportation & utilities, about 53% of covered jobs.

Trade, transportation & utilities is the largest employment sector at 52.9% of covered employment, followed by Education & health services at 16.8%. Trailing-12-month unemployment is 5.99%, above the Minnesota state average.

Local economy

Unemployment (12-mo): 6.0%; +1.68 pp vs. state
County GDP: $2.7B; 0.54% of state
Avg. annual pay: $57,303
Establishments: 416

U.S. BLS 2026M07 · U.S. BEA 2024 · BLS QCEW 2025

Top employment sectors

Average annual employment by supersector

Trade, transportation & utilities 4,963 52.9%
Education & health services 1,581 16.8%
Leisure & hospitality 941 10.0%
Manufacturing 674 7.2%
Public administration 339 3.6%
Other services 226 2.4%
Construction 211 2.2%
Financial activities 167 1.8%
Professional & business services 149 1.6%
Information 90 1.0%
Natural resources & mining 46 0.5%

BLS QCEW 2025

Housing

Home ownership: 72.2%; +0.0 pp vs MN · 74th of 87
Median gross rent: $862; −$418 vs MN · 55th of 87
Owner-occupied: 4,479
Renter-occupied: 1,728

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Local economy in 3 reads

Concentrated

Top three sectors employ 80% of the county workforce. Most panelists likely share employer relationships within these sectors, surface those connections early in voir dire before any institutional-defendant or sector-specific framing.
Moderate wage spread

Highest-paid sector (Public administration, $69,729/yr) pays 3.5× the lowest (Other services, $19,666/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.
Institutional employer scale

Average establishment employs 23 workers, typical of an institutional-employer economy where large hospitals, plants, schools, and government agencies dominate. Expect many panelists to share an employer rather than work for themselves.

BLS QCEW 2025

Largest employers

Principal employers by headcount

1 of the top 5 employers on this list (1 of the listed 5) is in trade, transportation & utilities, accounting for 3,263 employees on this list. So trade, transportation & utilities is the largest sector by employment here, but most of the county's five biggest named employers sit outside it. A panelist who works somewhere you recognize is probably not working where most of this county works; ask where they work before assuming either pattern fits them.

#	Employer	Sector	Employees
1	Digi-Key Corporation	Electronic components distribution (wholesale)	3,263
2	Sanford Health - Thief River Falls	Hospital	540
3	Arctic Cat, Incorporated	Snowmobile and ATV manufacturing	440
4	Thief River Falls School District No. 564	Public school district	400
5	Seven Clans Casino Hotel & Indoor Waterpark	Casino hotel	298
6	Northern Pride, Inc.	Turkey processing	203
7	Pennington County	County government	140
8	Northland Community & Technical College	Public community and technical college	108
9	City of Thief River Falls	City government	85
10	Hugos	Grocery store	80

Source: City of Thief River Falls, Minnesota, audited financial report for the year ended December 31, 2025, Table 16 'Principal Employers, Current Year and Nine Years Ago', sourced to a Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development community profile. The city does not say how the counts were gathered. Ranks are ours by 2025 count; the source prints none. (2025)

Political composition

Consistently strongly Republican

Republican candidate carried this county in 2016, 2020, and 2024 (avg winning share: 62%). 'Strongly' threshold: ≥60% avg.

Pennington County was carried by the Republican candidate in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 cycles, with 64.6% in 2024, 62.3% in 2020, 60.0% in 2016.

Presidential results

2024 presidential · 7,361 votes cast

Republican
Democratic

Republican 4,756 64.6%
Democratic 2,439 33.1%
Other / third-party 166 2.3%

Election results 2024

Languages, households, faith & health

Family-majority, English-speaking

Family households are 57% of all households (thresholds: ≥70% = 'family-dominant'; 50–70% = 'family-majority'; <50% = 'singles/nonfamily-majority'). 5.8% of residents 5 and older speak a language other than English at home (threshold for 'linguistically diverse' is ≥10%).

5.8% of residents 5 years and older speak a language other than English at home. The most common are Spanish, Tagalog, French, Haitian, or Cajun. Veterans account for 5.6% of the adult civilian population (612 individuals).

Languages spoken at home

94.2% speak only English at home

Spanish 423 3.2%
Tagalog 113 0.9%
French, Haitian, or Cajun 77 0.6%
Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 47 0.4%
German or other West Germanic 37 0.3%
Chinese 10 0.1%
Vietnamese 8 0.1%
Korean 2 0.0%

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Household composition

Households: 6,207
Family households: 3,559; 57.3% of households
Married couples w/ children: 1,141; 32.1% of families
Single-mother families: 247; 6.9% of families
Veterans: 612; 5.6% of civilians 18+

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Religious composition

61.1% overall adherence rate

Mainline Protestant 5,744 41.1%
Catholic 1,445 10.3%
Evangelical Protestant 1,207 8.6%
Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 151 1.1%

US Religion Census 2020

Health & education

Health insured: 95.2%; ±1.3 pp
Uninsured: 4.8%; ±1.3 pp; 45th of 87
With a disability: 15.4%; ±1.7 pp; 18th of 87
Bachelor's or higher: 21.0%; ±2.5 pp; −18.4 pp vs MN · 64th of 87
Uninsured, under 65 (2024): 5.3%; 90% interval 4.6%–6.0% · Census SAHIE

The under-65 uninsured rate is not comparable to the ACS insurance figures, which cover all ages.

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Court infrastructure

Trial court: 9th Judicial District Court
Judges: 23 (District Court judges per judicial district; counts vintage 2026 mncourts.gov and may shift modestly as the Legislature reallocates seats between districts (Minn. Stat. § 2.724).)
Court seats: Ada, Aitkin, Bagley, Baudette, Bemidji, Brainerd, Crookston, Grand Rapids, Hallock, International Falls, Mahnomen, Park Rapids, Red Lake Falls, Roseau, Thief River Falls, Walker, Warren

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Court reference

Traffic safety context

Pennington totals, 2024 — the per-100k rate is based on 4 recorded deaths, too few to be statistically reliable

Traffic fatalities: 4; 36.61 per 100k adults (18+)
Fatal crashes: 3

NHTSA FARS 2024