Laurens County, South Carolina

• White (non-Hispanic) 45,157 65.8%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 4,614 6.7%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 15,724 22.9%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 403 0.6%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 2,574 3.7%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 40 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 65 0.1%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 89 0.1%

• Under 18 14,980 21.8%
• 18–24 5,771 8.4%
• 25–44 16,635 24.2%
• 45–64 18,124 26.4%
• 65 and over 13,156 19.2%

Median household income

$60,433

90% interval $54,863–$66,003

−$12,074 vs SC · 25th of 46

Below poverty line

16.9%

90% interval 13.9%–19.9%

+3.6 pp vs SC · 20th of 46

Unemployment (12-mo)

4.8%

+0.07 pp vs. state

County GDP

$2.9B

0.82% of state

Avg. annual pay

$54,688

Establishments

1,086

• Manufacturing 7,172 35.1%
• Education & health services 4,083 20.0%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 3,495 17.1%
• Leisure & hospitality 1,542 7.6%
• Professional & business services 1,046 5.1%
• Public administration 946 4.6%
• Construction 633 3.1%
• Financial activities 306 1.5%
• Other services 266 1.3%
• Natural resources & mining 102 0.5%
• Information 82 0.4%

The sectors listed cover 96.4% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

71.5%

−0.4 pp vs SC · 29th of 46

Median gross rent

$880

−$300 vs SC · 26th of 46

Owner-occupied

19,269

Renter-occupied

7,690

• Concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 72% 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 (Information, $81,162/yr) pays 4.1× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $19,837/yr). Stark intra-economy class divisions on the panel; calibrate damages and lost-wages framing to that range.

• Institutional employer scale

  Average establishment employs 19 workers, typical of an institutional-employer economy where large hospitals, plants, schools, and government agencies dominate. Expect many panelists to share an employer rather than work for themselves.

• Republican 21,110 69.9%
• Democratic 8,769 29.0%
• Other / third-party 334 1.1%

• Spanish 2,867 4.4%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 138 0.2%
• German or other West Germanic 82 0.1%
• Chinese 53 0.1%
• Tagalog 36 0.1%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 16 0.0%
• Vietnamese 7 0.0%

Households

26,959

Family households

17,708

65.7% of households

Married couples w/ children

4,241

23.9% of families

Single-mother families

1,994

11.3% of families

Veterans

3,453

6.4% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 28,072 41.6%
• Mainline Protestant 4,121 6.1%
• Black Protestant 4,114 6.1%
• Catholic 1,419 2.1%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 465 0.7%

Health insured

87.6%

±1.3 pp

Uninsured

12.4%

±1.3 pp

8th of 46

With a disability

17.5%

±1.2 pp

19th of 46

Bachelor's or higher

17.6%

±1.5 pp

−14.5 pp vs SC · 33rd of 46

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

12.8%

90% interval 11.5%–14.1% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

8th Judicial Circuit Court

Judges

3 (Resident Circuit Court judgeships authorized for this circuit by S.C. Code Ann. 14-5-610, as amended by 2026 Act No. 154. Authorized seats, not seated judges; South Carolina also elects at-large circuit judges statewide who are not counted in any circuit.)

Court seats

Abbeville, Greenwood, Laurens, Newberry

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Traffic fatalities

17

31.67 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

16