Cleveland County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 71,321 70.6%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 4,792 4.7%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 18,030 17.9%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 953 0.9%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 5,385 5.3%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 222 0.2%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 64 0.1%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 224 0.2%

• Under 18 22,528 22.3%
• 18–24 8,762 8.7%
• 25–44 23,909 23.7%
• 45–64 26,796 26.5%
• 65 and over 18,996 18.8%

Median household income

$61,392

90% interval $56,654–$66,130

−$12,663 vs NC · 54th of 100

Below poverty line

16.3%

90% interval 13.6%–19.0%

+3.7 pp vs NC · 34th of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

4.4%

+0.64 pp vs. state

County GDP

$6.0B

0.71% of state

Avg. annual pay

$53,935

Establishments

2,190

• Education & health services 8,985 25.0%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 7,838 21.8%
• Manufacturing 6,143 17.1%
• Leisure & hospitality 4,137 11.5%
• Professional & business services 2,551 7.1%
• Public administration 2,133 5.9%
• Financial activities 791 2.2%
• Other services 647 1.8%

The sectors listed cover 92.4% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

70.9%

+4.3 pp vs NC · 62nd of 100

Median gross rent

$914

−$314 vs NC · 47th of 100

Owner-occupied

27,540

Renter-occupied

11,310

• Moderately concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 64% 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 (Manufacturing, $69,043/yr) pays 2.7× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $25,517/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 16 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 34,654 67.2%
• Democratic 16,603 32.2%
• Other / third-party 345 0.7%

• Spanish 3,463 3.6%
• Tagalog 185 0.2%
• Arabic 135 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 115 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 90 0.1%
• German or other West Germanic 79 0.1%
• Chinese 45 0.0%
• Korean 23 0.0%

Households

38,850

Family households

26,395

67.9% of households

Married couples w/ children

5,576

21.1% of families

Single-mother families

2,460

9.3% of families

Veterans

5,720

7.3% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 43,954 44.2%
• Mainline Protestant 6,343 6.4%
• Black Protestant 5,326 5.4%
• Catholic 2,901 2.9%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 1,677 1.7%

Health insured

90.7%

±1.1 pp

Uninsured

9.3%

±1.1 pp

63rd of 100

With a disability

16.8%

±1 pp

54th of 100

Bachelor's or higher

22.0%

±1.4 pp

−13.7 pp vs NC · 54th of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

10.1%

90% interval 9.1%–11.1% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

39th 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

Lincolnton, Shelby

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

16

20.39 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

15