Jury Pool Profile

Rutherford County, Tennessee

Republican +21.7 (2024)

County seat: Murfreesboro
Judicial district: 16th Judicial District Circuit Court
Population (July 2025 estimate): 386,352; Census PEP. The five-year ACS survey average is 360,646.

At a glance

Rutherford County is a 386,352-person venue. The county population is 66% White and 15% Black (Census race-alone categories). 12% identify as Hispanic or Latino of any race. Median household income is $90,118, $18,111 above the TN state median of $72,007; 35.8% of residents 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher. 16.1% of residents 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, most commonly Spanish and Arabic. The largest employment sector is Trade, transportation & utilities, at 25.2% of covered employment, average pay $60,032/year. Trailing-12-month unemployment is 2.9%, below the 3.55% state average. The county carried the Republican presidential candidate in 2016, 2020, and 2024, taking 57% to 60% of the vote across the three.

Population: 360,646
Median household income: $85,470
Unemployment: 2.9%

Who sits on a jury?

Racially mixed

50–70% White and ≥15% Black. This county: 66% / 15%.

Rutherford County has a population of 360,646, with a median age of 34.2. By Census race-alone categories, White residents make up 65.9%; Black residents 14.8%. Independently, 12.2% of residents identify as Hispanic or Latino of any race.

The median household earns $90,118; 35.8% of residents 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher; 10.0% live below the federal poverty line.

Race & ethnicity

White (non-Hispanic) 229,745 63.7%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 43,964 12.2%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 52,973 14.7%
Asian (non-Hispanic) 13,036 3.6%
Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 18,112 5.0%
American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 317 0.1%
Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 272 0.1%
Some other race (non-Hispanic) 2,227 0.6%

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Age distribution

Median age 34.2

Under 18 89,103 24.7%
18–24 41,911 11.6%
25–44 104,787 29.1%
45–64 84,547 23.4%
65 and over 40,298 11.2%

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Income & poverty

Median household income: $90,118; 90% interval $85,061–$95,175; +$18,111 vs TN · 5th of 95
Below poverty line: 10.0%; 90% interval 8.8%–11.2%; −3.3 pp vs TN · 84th of 95

U.S. Census SAIPE 2024

Economic context

Trade & transportation anchored

Largest sector in BLS QCEW: Trade, transportation & utilities, about 25% of covered jobs.

Trade, transportation & utilities is the largest employment sector at 25.2% of covered employment, followed by Education & health services at 19.8%. Trailing-12-month unemployment is 2.9%, below the Tennessee state average.

Local economy

Unemployment (12-mo): 2.9%; −0.65 pp vs. state
County GDP: $27.6B; 4.92% of state
Avg. annual pay: $66,586
Establishments: 8,124

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

Top employment sectors

Average annual employment by supersector

Trade, transportation & utilities 37,480 25.2%
Education & health services 29,391 19.8%
Manufacturing 27,306 18.4%
Leisure & hospitality 16,344 11.0%
Professional & business services 13,440 9.1%
Construction 7,068 4.8%
Financial activities 5,409 3.6%
Public administration 4,965 3.3%
Other services 3,570 2.4%
Information 3,239 2.2%
Natural resources & mining 166 0.1%
Unclassified 60 0.0%

BLS QCEW 2025

Housing

Home ownership: 64.8%; −2.1 pp vs TN · 84th of 95
Median gross rent: $1,502; +$313 vs TN · 3rd of 95
Owner-occupied: 83,895
Renter-occupied: 45,536

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Local economy in 3 reads

Moderately concentrated

Top three sectors employ 63% 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 (Manufacturing, $93,620/yr) pays 3.7× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $25,419/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.
Institutional employer scale

Average establishment employs 18 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.

BLS QCEW 2025

Largest employers

Principal employers by headcount

1 of the top 5 employers on this list (1 of the listed 5) is in trade, transportation & utilities, accounting for 2,700 employees on this list. So trade, transportation & utilities 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	Rutherford County Government & Board of Education	Government (county) / Education (public K-12)	7,936*
2	Nissan Motor Manufacturing Corp. USA	Manufacturing (automotive)	5,700*
3	Middle Tennessee State University	Education (public university)	3,015*
4	City of Murfreesboro (includes schools)	Government (municipal) / Education (public K-12)	2,769*
5	Amazon Fulfillment Center	Logistics / e-commerce fulfillment	2,700*

* Headcount is an estimate.

Showing 5 of 10 employers on the published list(30,437 employees total).

Source: Rutherford County, Tennessee, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, Table 14, 'Principal Employers, Current Year and Ten Years Ago.' The county credits the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Counts are printed as estimates, with no method or survey date stated. (2025)

Political composition

Consistently Republican

Republican candidate carried this county in 2016, 2020, and 2024 (avg winning share: 59%). 'Strongly' threshold: ≥60% avg.

Rutherford County was carried by the Republican candidate in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 cycles, with 60.1% in 2024, 56.6% in 2020, 60.5% in 2016.

Presidential results

2024 presidential · 147,656 votes cast

Republican
Democratic

Republican 88,811 60.1%
Democratic 56,656 38.4%
Other / third-party 2,189 1.5%

Election results 2024

Languages, households, faith & health

Family-majority, linguistically diverse

Family households are 70% of all households (thresholds: ≥70% = 'family-dominant'; 50–70% = 'family-majority'; <50% = 'singles/nonfamily-majority'). 16.1% of residents 5 and older speak a language other than English at home (threshold for 'linguistically diverse' is ≥10%).

16.1% of residents 5 years and older speak a language other than English at home. The most common are Spanish, Arabic, French, Haitian, or Cajun. Veterans account for 6.3% of the adult civilian population (17,068 individuals).

Languages spoken at home

83.9% speak only English at home

Spanish 32,005 9.5%
Arabic 6,564 1.9%
French, Haitian, or Cajun 1,031 0.3%
Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 907 0.3%
Tagalog 901 0.3%
Chinese 685 0.2%
Vietnamese 613 0.2%
German or other West Germanic 596 0.2%
Korean 247 0.1%

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Household composition

Households: 129,431
Family households: 90,203; 69.7% of households
Married couples w/ children: 29,746; 33.0% of families
Single-mother families: 9,100; 10.1% of families
Veterans: 17,068; 6.3% of civilians 18+

U.S. Census ACS 2024

Religious composition

38.2% overall adherence rate

Evangelical Protestant 88,619 26.0%
Mainline Protestant 14,097 4.1%
Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 10,366 3.0%
Catholic 8,740 2.6%
Black Protestant 6,046 1.8%
Orthodox 2,425 0.7%

US Religion Census 2020

Health & education

Health insured: 90.0%; ±0.9 pp
Uninsured: 10.0%; ±0.9 pp; 47th of 95
With a disability: 11.9%; ±0.6 pp; 88th of 95
Bachelor's or higher: 35.8%; ±1.1 pp; +4.7 pp vs TN · 6th of 95
Uninsured, under 65 (2024): 11.0%; 90% interval 10.1%–11.9% · 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: 16th Judicial District Circuit Court
Judges: 4 (Circuit Court judges per district; Chancery + Criminal Court judges separate; vintage 2026 tncourts.gov)
Court seats: Murfreesboro, Woodbury

This judicial district spans multiple counties.

Court reference

Traffic safety context

Rutherford totals, 2024

Traffic fatalities: 44; 16.2 per 100k adults (18+)
Fatal crashes: 38

NHTSA FARS 2024