Lincoln County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 75,997 82.0%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 7,542 8.1%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 5,472 5.9%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 733 0.8%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 2,647 2.9%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 125 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 18 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 182 0.2%

• Under 18 19,131 20.6%
• 18–24 6,747 7.3%
• 25–44 21,556 23.2%
• 45–64 27,220 29.4%
• 65 and over 18,062 19.5%

Median household income

$83,859

90% interval $77,099–$90,619

+$9,804 vs NC · 14th of 100

Below poverty line

9.7%

90% interval 7.7%–11.7%

−2.9 pp vs NC · 89th of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

3.3%

−0.41 pp vs. state

County GDP

$4.7B

0.56% of state

Avg. annual pay

$56,657

Establishments

2,678

• Trade, transportation & utilities 6,193 21.5%
• Education & health services 5,488 19.0%
• Manufacturing 4,866 16.9%
• Leisure & hospitality 3,382 11.7%
• Professional & business services 2,869 10.0%
• Public administration 1,412 4.9%
• Financial activities 1,172 4.1%

The sectors listed cover 88.1% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

78.9%

+12.3 pp vs NC · 19th of 100

Median gross rent

$1,015

−$213 vs NC · 37th of 100

Owner-occupied

29,052

Renter-occupied

7,759

• Moderately concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 57% 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 (Financial activities, $77,202/yr) pays 3.6× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $21,423/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 11 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 40,183 72.5%
• Democratic 14,842 26.8%
• Other / third-party 408 0.7%

• Spanish 5,725 6.5%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 606 0.7%
• German or other West Germanic 230 0.3%
• Vietnamese 164 0.2%
• Tagalog 119 0.1%
• Arabic 61 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 58 0.1%
• Korean 12 0.0%
• Chinese 5 0.0%

Households

36,811

Family households

27,025

73.4% of households

Married couples w/ children

7,463

27.6% of families

Single-mother families

1,861

6.9% of families

Veterans

4,741

6.4% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 23,012 26.5%
• Mainline Protestant 12,993 15.0%
• Catholic 6,426 7.4%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 1,057 1.2%
• Black Protestant 970 1.1%

Health insured

91.3%

±1.1 pp

Uninsured

8.7%

±1.1 pp

79th of 100

With a disability

14.9%

±1 pp

76th of 100

Bachelor's or higher

28.3%

±2 pp

−7.4 pp vs NC · 31st of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

8.9%

90% interval 8.0%–9.8% · 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

7

9.51 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

7