Wayne County, Mississippi

• White (non-Hispanic) 11,143 56.5%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 433 2.2%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 7,465 37.9%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 117 0.6%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 478 2.4%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 12 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 0 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 70 0.4%

• Under 18 4,916 24.9%
• 18–24 1,823 9.2%
• 25–44 4,416 22.4%
• 45–64 5,012 25.4%
• 65 and over 3,551 18.0%

Median household income

$48,582

90% interval $43,195–$53,969

−$10,719 vs MS · 56th of 82

Below poverty line

21.3%

90% interval 16.5%–26.1%

+3.5 pp vs MS · 31st of 82

Unemployment (12-mo)

4.0%

+0.23 pp vs. state

County GDP

$906.0M

0.57% of state

Avg. annual pay

$44,553

Establishments

386

• Education & health services 1,405 28.9%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 1,259 25.9%
• Manufacturing 485 10.0%
• Leisure & hospitality 472 9.7%
• Professional & business services 360 7.4%
• Public administration 254 5.2%
• Information 9 0.2%
• Financial activities 2 0.0%

The sectors listed cover 87.3% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

85.3%

+15.3 pp vs MS · 3rd of 82

Median gross rent

$784

−$170 vs MS · 41st of 82

Owner-occupied

6,553

Renter-occupied

1,128

• Moderately concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 65% of the county workforce. Substantial intra-sector overlap among panelists is likely; confirm employer relationships before sector-specific framing.

• Wide wage spread

  Highest-paid sector (Manufacturing, $63,216/yr) pays 4.1× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $15,254/yr). Stark intra-economy class divisions on the panel; calibrate damages and lost-wages framing to that range.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 13 workers, a mix of institutional employers and small businesses. Both employed-by-large-institution and small-business-owner perspectives are likely on the panel.

• Republican 6,013 65.9%
• Democratic 3,028 33.2%
• Other / third-party 78 0.9%

• Spanish 454 2.5%
• Vietnamese 35 0.2%
• German or other West Germanic 19 0.1%

Households

7,681

Family households

5,000

65.1% of households

Married couples w/ children

1,086

21.7% of families

Single-mother families

661

13.2% of families

Veterans

676

4.6% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 9,981 50.5%
• Mainline Protestant 1,211 6.1%
• Black Protestant 502 2.5%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 181 0.9%
• Catholic 98 0.5%

Health insured

84.8%

±3.1 pp

Uninsured

15.2%

±3.1 pp

8th of 82

With a disability

20.1%

±2.6 pp

39th of 82

Bachelor's or higher

16.0%

±3.2 pp

−9.1 pp vs MS · 57th of 82

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

15.6%

90% interval 13.9%–17.3% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

10th Circuit Court District

Judges

3 (Circuit Court judges per district (general civil + felony criminal jurisdiction); Chancery Court judges (equity matters, separate 20 Chancery Court Districts) and limited-jurisdiction County Court judges are not counted here. Vintage 2026 courts.ms.gov; statutory judgeship allocations are set district-by-district in Miss. Code § 9-7-3 et seq. Counts for the smallest rural districts (22nd, 23rd) are approximate and may reflect single-judgeship statutory allocations.)

Court seats

De Kalb, Meridian, Quitman, Waynesboro

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

9

60.8 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

8