Rutherford County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 52,457 80.8%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 3,698 5.7%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 4,984 7.7%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 304 0.5%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 2,881 4.4%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 87 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 37 0.1%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 482 0.7%

• Under 18 13,061 20.1%
• 18–24 4,618 7.1%
• 25–44 14,562 22.4%
• 45–64 18,231 28.1%
• 65 and over 14,458 22.3%

Median household income

$57,208

90% interval $51,942–$62,474

−$16,847 vs NC · 72nd of 100

Below poverty line

14.8%

90% interval 11.8%–17.8%

+2.2 pp vs NC · 48th of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

4.4%

+0.66 pp vs. state

County GDP

$2.5B

0.29% of state

Avg. annual pay

$49,049

Establishments

1,460

• Education & health services 4,084 22.5%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 3,598 19.8%
• Manufacturing 2,913 16.0%
• Leisure & hospitality 2,037 11.2%
• Professional & business services 1,473 8.1%
• Public administration 1,413 7.8%
• Information 515 2.8%

The sectors listed cover 88.3% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

73.9%

+7.3 pp vs NC · 45th of 100

Median gross rent

$783

−$445 vs NC · 77th of 100

Owner-occupied

19,684

Renter-occupied

6,958

• Moderately concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 58% 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 (Information, $66,002/yr) pays 2.9× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $22,637/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 12 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 25,456 73.6%
• Democratic 8,914 25.8%
• Other / third-party 230 0.7%

• Spanish 2,245 3.6%
• Vietnamese 119 0.2%
• German or other West Germanic 97 0.2%
• Arabic 97 0.2%
• Tagalog 59 0.1%
• Chinese 32 0.1%
• Korean 30 0.0%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 20 0.0%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 18 0.0%

Households

26,642

Family households

16,942

63.6% of households

Married couples w/ children

3,262

19.3% of families

Single-mother families

1,811

10.7% of families

Veterans

3,853

7.4% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 34,047 52.8%
• Mainline Protestant 5,031 7.8%
• Black Protestant 2,488 3.9%
• Catholic 2,429 3.8%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 978 1.5%

Health insured

88.0%

±1.2 pp

Uninsured

12.0%

±1.2 pp

23rd of 100

With a disability

21.2%

±1.9 pp

10th of 100

Bachelor's or higher

21.5%

±1.9 pp

−14.2 pp vs NC · 59th of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

12.6%

90% interval 11.3%–13.9% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

41st 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

Marion, Rutherfordton

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

16

30.85 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

11