Wilkes County, North Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 56,518 85.7%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 4,915 7.5%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 2,403 3.6%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 396 0.6%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 1,574 2.4%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 108 0.2%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 0 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 21 0.0%

• Under 18 13,159 20.0%
• 18–24 4,992 7.6%
• 25–44 14,311 21.7%
• 45–64 18,363 27.9%
• 65 and over 15,110 22.9%

Median household income

$56,053

90% interval $51,402–$60,704

−$18,002 vs NC · 77th of 100

Below poverty line

15.3%

90% interval 12.7%–17.9%

+2.7 pp vs NC · 45th of 100

Unemployment (12-mo)

3.8%

+0.07 pp vs. state

County GDP

$3.2B

0.38% of state

Avg. annual pay

$51,964

Establishments

1,336

• Education & health services 5,169 27.4%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 3,778 20.0%
• Manufacturing 3,493 18.5%
• Leisure & hospitality 1,822 9.6%
• Public administration 1,311 6.9%
• Professional & business services 1,303 6.9%
• Financial activities 460 2.4%
• Information 21 0.1%

The sectors listed cover 91.9% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

73.5%

+6.9 pp vs NC · 48th of 100

Median gross rent

$723

−$505 vs NC · 96th of 100

Owner-occupied

19,928

Renter-occupied

7,179

• Concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 66% 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.

• Moderate wage spread

  Highest-paid sector (Financial activities, $76,480/yr) pays 3.8× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $20,014/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 14 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 28,812 79.5%
• Democratic 7,194 19.9%
• Other / third-party 234 0.6%

• Spanish 3,563 5.7%
• German or other West Germanic 525 0.8%
• Chinese 120 0.2%
• Korean 115 0.2%
• Tagalog 93 0.1%
• Vietnamese 89 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 53 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 35 0.1%

Households

27,107

Family households

18,797

69.3% of households

Married couples w/ children

4,412

23.5% of families

Single-mother families

1,636

8.7% of families

Veterans

3,211

6.1% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 31,331 47.5%
• Mainline Protestant 3,367 5.1%
• Catholic 2,911 4.4%
• Black Protestant 1,734 2.6%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 1,036 1.6%

Health insured

89.5%

±1.1 pp

Uninsured

10.5%

±1.1 pp

42nd of 100

With a disability

19.1%

±1.5 pp

21st of 100

Bachelor's or higher

16.9%

±1.8 pp

−18.8 pp vs NC · 84th of 100

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

12.7%

90% interval 11.4%–14.0% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

34th 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

Jefferson, Sparta, Wilkesboro, Yadkinville

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

17

32.21 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

16