Catawba County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 117,581 71.9%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 18,786 11.5%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 12,518 7.7%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 6,955 4.3%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 6,985 4.3%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 133 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 41 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 574 0.4%

• Under 18 35,394 21.6%
• 18–24 13,806 8.4%
• 25–44 38,974 23.8%
• 45–64 44,788 27.4%
• 65 and over 30,611 18.7%

Median household income

$70,879

90% interval $66,685–$75,073

−$3,176 vs NC · 29th of 100

Below poverty line

13.0%

90% interval 10.9%–15.1%

+0.4 pp vs NC · 65th of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

3.6%

−0.17 pp vs. state

County GDP

$12.4B

1.47% of state

Avg. annual pay

$59,014

Establishments

5,073

• Manufacturing 23,334 26.1%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 20,349 22.8%
• Education & health services 15,940 17.8%
• Leisure & hospitality 9,132 10.2%
• Professional & business services 8,841 9.9%
• Public administration 3,509 3.9%
• Financial activities 1,915 2.1%
• Other services 1,823 2.0%

The sectors listed cover 94.9% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

72.2%

+5.6 pp vs NC · 55th of 100

Median gross rent

$965

−$263 vs NC · 43rd of 100

Owner-occupied

47,794

Renter-occupied

18,433

• 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 (Professional & business services, $69,142/yr) pays 3.1× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $22,581/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 18 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 59,577 68.6%
• Democratic 26,569 30.6%
• Other / third-party 739 0.9%

• Spanish 13,324 8.6%
• Vietnamese 423 0.3%
• Tagalog 317 0.2%
• German or other West Germanic 189 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 163 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 141 0.1%
• Chinese 46 0.0%
• Korean 18 0.0%
• Arabic 17 0.0%

Households

66,227

Family households

44,707

67.5% of households

Married couples w/ children

11,199

25.0% of families

Single-mother families

4,215

9.4% of families

Veterans

8,114

6.3% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 46,080 28.7%
• Mainline Protestant 28,861 18.0%
• Catholic 13,438 8.4%
• Black Protestant 3,078 1.9%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 2,942 1.8%
• Orthodox 35 0.0%

Health insured

89.4%

±0.9 pp

Uninsured

10.6%

±0.9 pp

40th of 100

With a disability

13.6%

±0.7 pp

83rd of 100

Bachelor's or higher

26.1%

±1.3 pp

−9.6 pp vs NC · 39th of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

11.8%

90% interval 10.7%–12.9% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

19th 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

Newton

Traffic fatalities

22

17.16 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

22