Avery County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 15,152 85.7%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1,070 6.1%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 676 3.8%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 74 0.4%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 587 3.3%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 19 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 80 0.5%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 22 0.1%

• Under 18 2,554 14.4%
• 18–24 1,594 9.0%
• 25–44 4,272 24.2%
• 45–64 5,080 28.7%
• 65 and over 4,180 23.6%

Median household income

$58,017

90% interval $51,423–$64,611

−$16,038 vs NC · 66th of 100

Below poverty line

15.8%

90% interval 12.1%–19.5%

+3.2 pp vs NC · 39th of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

3.3%

−0.41 pp vs. state

County GDP

$890.3M

0.11% of state

Avg. annual pay

$47,753

Establishments

668

• Leisure & hospitality 2,124 27.3%
• Education & health services 1,513 19.4%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 1,099 14.1%
• Public administration 840 10.8%
• Professional & business services 641 8.2%
• Construction 589 7.6%
• Other services 298 3.8%
• Information 4 0.1%

The sectors listed cover 91.3% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

83.0%

+16.4 pp vs NC · 4th of 100

Median gross rent

$773

−$455 vs NC · 81st of 100

Owner-occupied

5,637

Renter-occupied

1,154

• Moderately concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 61% of the county workforce. Substantial intra-sector overlap among panelists is likely; confirm employer relationships before sector-specific framing.

• Compressed wage spread

  Highest-paid sector pays only 1.6× the lowest ($55,296 vs $34,557/yr), a relatively flat local wage distribution.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 12 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 7,181 75.8%
• Democratic 2,220 23.4%
• Other / third-party 67 0.7%

• Spanish 584 3.4%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 34 0.2%
• German or other West Germanic 15 0.1%
• Chinese 6 0.0%
• Arabic 6 0.0%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 5 0.0%

Households

6,791

Family households

4,449

65.5% of households

Married couples w/ children

1,114

25.0% of families

Single-mother families

229

5.1% of families

Veterans

1,271

8.4% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 5,350 30.0%
• Catholic 1,200 6.7%
• Mainline Protestant 1,083 6.1%
• Black Protestant 246 1.4%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 245 1.4%

Health insured

87.5%

±1.8 pp

Uninsured

12.5%

±1.8 pp

15th of 100

With a disability

17.7%

±2 pp

38th of 100

Bachelor's or higher

25.0%

±3.2 pp

−10.7 pp vs NC · 45th of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

14.1%

90% interval 12.6%–15.6% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

35th Judicial District Superior Court

Judges

2 (Superior Court judges per primary district (general civil + felony criminal jurisdiction); District Court judges (limited jurisdiction) separate. Vintage 2026 nccourts.gov; counts cross-checked against N.C.G.S. § 7A-41.1. Where an urban county (Wake, Mecklenburg, Guilford, Forsyth) is statutorily split into multiple Superior Court districts, all sub-district seats are aggregated under the primary district number used in counties.json. ~109 Superior Court judgeships statewide.)

Court seats

Bakersville, Boone, Burnsville, Marshall, Newland

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

2

13.22 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

2