Burke County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 69,461 79.1%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 7,457 8.5%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 5,312 6.1%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 3,072 3.5%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 2,202 2.5%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 121 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 23 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 147 0.2%

• Under 18 16,168 18.4%
• 18–24 6,634 7.6%
• 25–44 21,161 24.1%
• 45–64 24,801 28.2%
• 65 and over 19,031 21.7%

Median household income

$61,006

90% interval $55,909–$66,103

−$13,049 vs NC · 55th of 100

Below poverty line

14.0%

90% interval 11.8%–16.2%

+1.4 pp vs NC · 54th of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

3.6%

−0.16 pp vs. state

County GDP

$3.7B

0.44% of state

Avg. annual pay

$51,032

Establishments

1,734

• Education & health services 8,797 29.5%
• Manufacturing 6,955 23.4%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 4,245 14.3%
• Leisure & hospitality 3,252 10.9%
• Public administration 2,320 7.8%
• Professional & business services 2,012 6.8%
• Other services 634 2.1%

The sectors listed cover 94.8% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

74.5%

+7.9 pp vs NC · 41st of 100

Median gross rent

$884

−$344 vs NC · 51st of 100

Owner-occupied

27,054

Renter-occupied

9,252

• Concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 67% 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 (Education & health services, $60,509/yr) pays 2.8× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $21,678/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 17 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 32,130 70.3%
• Democratic 13,272 29.0%
• Other / third-party 331 0.7%

• Spanish 4,825 5.8%
• Chinese 201 0.2%
• Tagalog 121 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 72 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 47 0.1%
• German or other West Germanic 42 0.1%
• Arabic 34 0.0%

Households

36,306

Family households

24,448

67.3% of households

Married couples w/ children

5,076

20.8% of families

Single-mother families

2,202

9.0% of families

Veterans

4,559

6.4% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 39,272 44.8%
• Mainline Protestant 6,894 7.9%
• Catholic 4,527 5.2%
• Black Protestant 2,902 3.3%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 1,671 1.9%

Health insured

89.0%

±1.2 pp

Uninsured

11.0%

±1.2 pp

32nd of 100

With a disability

18.9%

±1.2 pp

23rd of 100

Bachelor's or higher

21.0%

±1.5 pp

−14.7 pp vs NC · 63rd of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

12.1%

90% interval 10.9%–13.3% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

36th 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

Lenoir, Morganton

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

18

25.13 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

18