Jackson County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 34,317 78.4%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3,500 8.0%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 927 2.1%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 446 1.0%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 1,543 3.5%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 2,819 6.4%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 67 0.2%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 152 0.3%

• Under 18 7,164 16.4%
• 18–24 8,338 19.0%
• 25–44 9,426 21.5%
• 45–64 9,996 22.8%
• 65 and over 8,847 20.2%

Median household income

$62,044

90% interval $56,383–$67,705

−$12,011 vs NC · 52nd of 100

Below poverty line

16.9%

90% interval 13.5%–20.3%

+4.3 pp vs NC · 29th of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

3.4%

−0.39 pp vs. state

County GDP

$2.2B

0.26% of state

Avg. annual pay

$49,793

Establishments

1,234

• Leisure & hospitality 7,633 39.6%
• Education & health services 5,085 26.4%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 2,299 11.9%
• Professional & business services 1,075 5.6%
• Public administration 946 4.9%
• Construction 902 4.7%
• Other services 528 2.7%
• Information 31 0.2%

The sectors listed cover 96.0% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

60.8%

−5.8 pp vs NC · 92nd of 100

Median gross rent

$904

−$324 vs NC · 48th of 100

Owner-occupied

11,201

Renter-occupied

7,229

• Concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 78% 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.

• Compressed wage spread

  Highest-paid sector pays only 1.5× the lowest ($60,801 vs $41,493/yr), a relatively flat local wage distribution.

• 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 11,796 54.0%
• Democratic 9,746 44.6%
• Other / third-party 322 1.5%

• Spanish 2,182 5.2%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 133 0.3%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 70 0.2%
• Chinese 68 0.2%
• German or other West Germanic 41 0.1%
• Tagalog 23 0.1%

Households

18,430

Family households

10,469

56.8% of households

Married couples w/ children

1,553

14.8% of families

Single-mother families

1,043

10.0% of families

Veterans

2,916

8% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 11,551 26.8%
• Mainline Protestant 2,651 6.1%
• Catholic 2,504 5.8%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 893 2.1%
• Black Protestant 192 0.4%

Health insured

84.2%

±1.5 pp

Uninsured

15.8%

±1.5 pp

4th of 100

With a disability

14.0%

±1.6 pp

82nd of 100

Bachelor's or higher

31.1%

±2.6 pp

−4.6 pp vs NC · 24th of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

13.6%

90% interval 12.2%–15.0% · 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

13.66 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

5