Clay County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 10,469 90.2%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 481 4.1%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 254 2.2%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 66 0.6%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 211 1.8%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 43 0.4%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 0 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 86 0.7%

• Under 18 1,865 16.1%
• 18–24 718 6.2%
• 25–44 1,911 16.5%
• 45–64 3,310 28.5%
• 65 and over 3,806 32.8%

Median household income

$64,569

90% interval $57,475–$71,663

−$9,486 vs NC · 46th of 100

Below poverty line

11.5%

90% interval 8.6%–14.4%

−1.1 pp vs NC · 80th of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

3.5%

−0.2 pp vs. state

County GDP

$328.2M

0.04% of state

Avg. annual pay

$49,123

Establishments

356

• Education & health services 574 25.7%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 534 23.9%
• Leisure & hospitality 257 11.5%
• Public administration 220 9.9%
• Construction 208 9.3%
• Professional & business services 155 6.9%
• Financial activities 63 2.8%
• Information 5 0.2%

The sectors listed cover 90.3% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

81.2%

+14.6 pp vs NC · 10th of 100

Median gross rent

$804

−$424 vs NC · 74th of 100

Owner-occupied

4,125

Renter-occupied

956

• 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.

• Moderate wage spread

  Highest-paid sector (Professional & business services, $74,198/yr) pays 3.2× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $23,494/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Small-business scale

  Average establishment employs only 6.3 workers, a small-business-dominated local economy. Expect more self-employed and small-business-owner panelists than in institutional-employer venues.

• Republican 5,761 74.7%
• Democratic 1,899 24.6%
• Other / third-party 48 0.6%

• Spanish 129 1.2%
• German or other West Germanic 36 0.3%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 23 0.2%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 16 0.1%

Households

5,081

Family households

2,974

58.5% of households

Married couples w/ children

464

15.6% of families

Single-mother families

98

3.3% of families

Veterans

644

6.6% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 6,088 54.9%
• Mainline Protestant 1,232 11.1%
• Catholic 954 8.6%

Health insured

84.1%

±4.3 pp

Uninsured

15.9%

±4.3 pp

3rd of 100

With a disability

17.2%

±2.7 pp

47th of 100

Bachelor's or higher

31.8%

±4.2 pp

−3.9 pp vs NC · 23rd of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

11.4%

90% interval 10.0%–12.8% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

43rd Judicial District Superior Court

Judges

1 (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

Bryson City, Franklin, Hayesville, Murphy, Robbinsville, Sylva, Waynesville

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

5

51.31 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

4