Jury Pool Profile

Ward County, North Dakota

Republican +47.3 (2024)

County seat: Minot
Judicial district: North Central Judicial District Court
Population (July 2025 estimate): 68,233; Census PEP. The five-year ACS survey average is 68,973.

At a glance

Ward County is a 68,233-person venue. The county population is 81% White (Census race-alone categories). Median household income is $73,522, $6,610 below the ND state median of $80,132; 29.6% of residents 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher. 5.5% of residents 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, most commonly Spanish and Tagalog. The largest employment sector is Education & health services, at 26.9% of covered employment, average pay $63,718/year. Trailing-12-month unemployment is 2.46%, below the 2.49% state average. The county carried the Republican presidential candidate in 2016, 2020, and 2024, taking 69% to 73% of the vote across the three.

Population: 68,973
Median household income: $78,238
Unemployment: 2.5%

Who sits on a jury?

Predominantly White

≥70% White (race-alone) and <20% Black. This county: 81% / 5%.

Ward County has a population of 68,973, with a median age of 33.6. By Census race-alone categories, White residents make up 81.3%; Black residents 4.7%. Independently, 7.2% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The median household earns $73,522; 29.6% of residents 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher; 10.7% live below the federal poverty line.

Race & ethnicity

White (non-Hispanic) 55,434 80.4%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 4,947 7.2%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 2,720 3.9%
Asian (non-Hispanic) 1,021 1.5%
Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 3,460 5.0%
American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 1,089 1.6%
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 15 0.0%
Some other race (non-Hispanic) 287 0.4%

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Age distribution

Median age 33.6

Under 18 16,616 24.1%
18–24 7,952 11.5%
25–44 20,945 30.4%
45–64 13,824 20.0%
65 and over 9,636 14.0%

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Income & poverty

Median household income: $73,522; 90% interval $66,244–$80,800; −$6,610 vs ND · 35th of 53
Below poverty line: 10.7%; 90% interval 8.8%–12.6%; −0.1 pp vs ND · 31st of 53

U.S. Census SAIPE 2024

Economic context

Led by healthcare & education and trade & transportation

Largest sector in BLS QCEW: Education & health services, 8,396 jobs; Trade, transportation & utilities, 7,794, is within 20% of it.

Education & health services is the largest employment sector at 26.9% of covered employment, followed by Trade, transportation & utilities at 25.0%. Trailing-12-month unemployment is 2.46%, below the North Dakota state average.

Local economy

Unemployment (12-mo): 2.5%; −0.03 pp vs. state
County GDP: $5.1B; 6.36% of state
Avg. annual pay: $62,404
Establishments: 2,680

U.S. BLS 2026M07 · U.S. BEA 2024 · BLS QCEW 2025

Top employment sectors

Average annual employment by supersector

Education & health services 8,396 26.9%
Trade, transportation & utilities 7,794 25.0%
Leisure & hospitality 4,219 13.5%
Professional & business services 2,151 6.9%
Construction 1,962 6.3%
Public administration 1,675 5.4%
Natural resources & mining 1,624 5.2%
Financial activities 1,484 4.8%
Other services 1,043 3.3%
Manufacturing 440 1.4%
Information 382 1.2%

BLS QCEW 2025

Housing

Home ownership: 60.8%; −2.1 pp vs ND · 47th of 53
Median gross rent: $1,048; +$94 vs ND · 5th of 53
Owner-occupied: 17,365
Renter-occupied: 11,203

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Local economy in 3 reads

Concentrated

Top three sectors employ 65% 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.
Wide wage spread

Highest-paid sector (Natural resources & mining, $138,212/yr) pays 5.9× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $23,402/yr). Stark intra-economy class divisions on the panel; calibrate damages and lost-wages framing to that range.
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.

BLS QCEW 2025

Largest employers

Principal employers by headcount

2 of the top 5 employers on this list (3 of the listed 6) are in education & health services, accounting for 3,273 employees on this list. So education & health services is the largest sector by employment here, but most of the county's five biggest named employers sit outside it. A panelist who works somewhere you recognize is probably not working where most of this county works; ask where they work before assuming either pattern fits them.

#	Employer	Sector	Employees
1	Minot Air Force Base	Government (federal/military)	6,979
2	Trinity Health	Healthcare	1,861
3	Minot Public Schools	Education (public K-12)	1,027
4	City of Minot	Government (municipal)	480
5	Delta Vacations	Travel services (call center)	422
6	Minot State University	Education (public higher ed)	385

Showing 6 of 10 employers on the published list(12,236 employees total).

Source: City of Minot, North Dakota, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, 'Principal Employers, Current Year and Nine Years Ago' schedule, also published by the Minot Area Chamber EDC. Counts are full-time employees as reported by each employer. (2025)

Political composition

Consistently strongly Republican

Republican candidate carried this county in 2016, 2020, and 2024 (avg winning share: 71%). 'Strongly' threshold: ≥60% avg.

Ward County was carried by the Republican candidate in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 cycles, with 72.8% in 2024, 70.7% in 2020, 69.2% in 2016.

Presidential results

2024 presidential · 28,326 votes cast

Republican
Democratic

Republican 20,635 72.8%
Democratic 7,215 25.5%
Other / third-party 476 1.7%

Election results 2024

Languages, households, faith & health

Family-majority, English-speaking

Family households are 60% of all households (thresholds: ≥70% = 'family-dominant'; 50–70% = 'family-majority'; <50% = 'singles/nonfamily-majority'). 5.5% of residents 5 and older speak a language other than English at home (threshold for 'linguistically diverse' is ≥10%).

5.5% of residents 5 years and older speak a language other than English at home. The most common are Spanish, Tagalog, French, Haitian, or Cajun. Veterans account for 10.8% of the adult civilian population (5,201 individuals).

Languages spoken at home

94.5% speak only English at home

Spanish 1,659 2.6%
Tagalog 426 0.7%
French, Haitian, or Cajun 262 0.4%
German or other West Germanic 137 0.2%
Chinese 82 0.1%
Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 63 0.1%
Korean 51 0.1%
Arabic 50 0.1%
Vietnamese 15 0.0%

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Household composition

Households: 28,568
Family households: 17,270; 60.5% of households
Married couples w/ children: 5,987; 34.7% of families
Single-mother families: 1,441; 8.3% of families
Veterans: 5,201; 10.8% of civilians 18+

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Religious composition

41.6% overall adherence rate

Catholic 11,879 17.0%
Mainline Protestant 8,790 12.6%
Evangelical Protestant 5,905 8.4%
Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 2,439 3.5%
Orthodox 65 0.1%

US Religion Census 2020

Health & education

Health insured: 93.6%; ±1 pp
Uninsured: 6.4%; ±1 pp; 21st of 53
With a disability: 14.3%; ±1.3 pp; 15th of 53
Bachelor's or higher: 29.6%; ±2.3 pp; −3.1 pp vs ND · 10th of 53
Uninsured, under 65 (2024): 6.6%; 90% interval 5.9%–7.3% · Census SAHIE

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

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Court infrastructure

Trial court: North Central Judicial District Court
Judges: 5 (District Court judges per district (general civil + criminal jurisdiction); vintage 2026 ndcourts.gov)
Court seats: Bowbells, Minot, Stanley

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Court reference

Traffic safety context

Ward totals, 2024 — the per-100k rate is based on 2 recorded deaths, too few to be statistically reliable

Traffic fatalities: 2; 3.82 per 100k adults (18+)
Fatal crashes: 2

NHTSA FARS 2024