Gaston County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 155,945 66.4%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 23,213 9.9%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 40,152 17.1%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 3,868 1.6%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 9,779 4.2%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 330 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 73 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 1,521 0.6%

• Under 18 52,696 22.4%
• 18–24 18,662 7.9%
• 25–44 62,107 26.4%
• 45–64 62,649 26.7%
• 65 and over 38,767 16.5%

Median household income

$70,318

90% interval $67,215–$73,421

−$3,737 vs NC · 31st of 100

Below poverty line

12.4%

90% interval 10.5%–14.3%

−0.2 pp vs NC · 72nd of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

3.9%

+0.13 pp vs. state

County GDP

$11.3B

1.33% of state

Avg. annual pay

$56,852

Establishments

5,490

• Education & health services 20,697 25.4%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 16,441 20.2%
• Manufacturing 13,907 17.1%
• Leisure & hospitality 9,107 11.2%
• Professional & business services 6,465 7.9%
• Public administration 4,570 5.6%
• Financial activities 2,328 2.9%
• Other services 1,961 2.4%
• Construction 1 0.0%

The sectors listed cover 92.6% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

66.8%

+0.2 pp vs NC · 74th of 100

Median gross rent

$1,153

−$75 vs NC · 23rd of 100

Owner-occupied

62,554

Renter-occupied

31,022

• Moderately concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 63% 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, $69,003/yr) pays 3.0× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $23,074/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 15 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 73,828 62.1%
• Democratic 44,062 37.0%
• Other / third-party 1,069 0.9%

• Spanish 16,653 7.5%
• Vietnamese 558 0.3%
• German or other West Germanic 420 0.2%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 396 0.2%
• Chinese 330 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 309 0.1%
• Arabic 234 0.1%
• Tagalog 193 0.1%
• Korean 163 0.1%

Households

93,576

Family households

61,422

65.6% of households

Married couples w/ children

14,905

24.3% of families

Single-mother families

7,160

11.7% of families

Veterans

12,211

6.7% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 82,742 36.3%
• Mainline Protestant 17,752 7.8%
• Catholic 15,555 6.8%
• Black Protestant 7,268 3.2%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 6,530 2.9%
• Orthodox 20 0.0%

Health insured

89.3%

±0.8 pp

Uninsured

10.7%

±0.8 pp

39th of 100

With a disability

14.5%

±0.5 pp

79th of 100

Bachelor's or higher

26.5%

±0.9 pp

−9.2 pp vs NC · 38th of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

11.1%

90% interval 10.1%–12.1% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

38th Judicial District Superior Court

Judges

3 (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

Gastonia

Traffic fatalities

37

20.31 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

37