Cherokee County, Texas

• White (non-Hispanic) 30,496 58.8%
• Hispanic or Latino (any race) 12,422 23.9%
• Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 6,627 12.8%
• Asian (non-Hispanic) 230 0.4%
• Two or more races (non-Hispanic) 1,800 3.5%
• American Indian / Alaska Native (non-Hispanic) 46 0.1%
• Native Hawaiian / Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 0 0.0%
• Some other race (non-Hispanic) 265 0.5%

• Under 18 13,051 25.2%
• 18–24 4,156 8.0%
• 25–44 13,019 25.1%
• 45–64 12,133 23.4%
• 65 and over 9,527 18.4%

Median household income

$59,341

90% interval $54,058–$64,624

−$20,382 vs TX · 177th of 254

Below poverty line

16.0%

90% interval 12.8%–19.2%

+2.6 pp vs TX · 91st of 254

Unemployment (12-mo)

4.5%

+0.2 pp vs. state

County GDP

$2.1B

0.08% of state

Avg. annual pay

$52,484

Establishments

886

• Education & health services 3,352 22.4%
• Manufacturing 2,568 17.2%
• Trade, transportation & utilities 2,366 15.8%
• Leisure & hospitality 1,236 8.3%
• Professional & business services 1,099 7.4%
• Construction 655 4.4%
• Natural resources & mining 609 4.1%
• Financial activities 593 4.0%
• Public administration 381 2.5%
• Other services 171 1.1%
• Information 48 0.3%
• Unclassified 8 0.1%

The sectors listed cover 87.5% of covered employment; BLS withholds the rest to avoid disclosing individual employers.

Home ownership

74.0%

+11.4 pp vs TX · 130th of 254

Median gross rent

$933

−$470 vs TX · 135th of 254

Owner-occupied

13,453

Renter-occupied

4,732

• Moderately concentrated

  Top three sectors employ 55% 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 (Financial activities, $75,846/yr) pays 3.8× the lowest (Leisure & hospitality, $20,076/yr). Expect meaningful income variation across the panel.

• Mixed business scale

  Average establishment employs 17 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 16,593 80.9%
• Democratic 3,744 18.3%
• Other / third-party 165 0.8%

• Spanish 9,561 19.7%
• Tagalog 93 0.2%
• Russian, Polish, or other Slavic 34 0.1%
• French, Haitian, or Cajun 30 0.1%
• Chinese 20 0.0%
• Arabic 10 0.0%
• Vietnamese 5 0.0%

Households

18,185

Family households

13,414

73.8% of households

Married couples w/ children

3,701

27.6% of families

Single-mother families

1,549

11.5% of families

Veterans

2,779

7.2% of civilians 18+

• Evangelical Protestant 18,522 36.7%
• Catholic 5,415 10.7%
• Black Protestant 2,808 5.6%
• Mainline Protestant 2,647 5.3%
• Other (non-Christian + minor traditions) 704 1.4%
• Orthodox 35 0.1%

Health insured

80.1%

±2.1 pp

Uninsured

19.9%

±2.1 pp

58th of 254

With a disability

13.3%

±1.2 pp

193rd of 254

Bachelor's or higher

18.9%

±1.7 pp

−14.9 pp vs TX · 148th of 254

Uninsured, under 65 (2024)

21.4%

90% interval 19.7%–23.1% · Census SAHIE

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

Trial court

2nd District Court

Judges

1 (Total District Court judges with venue over this county; vintage 2026 txcourts.gov directory + Tex. Gov't Code § 24. Texas's court structure is unusual: each urban county has dozens of numbered District Courts (Harris ~60, Dallas ~45, Travis ~25, Bexar ~25, Tarrant ~20) with trial assignments random across the full bench. Rural counties typically have 1-2 District Court judges sitting on a multi-county district. County Court at Law judges (limited jurisdiction) and Constitutional County Court judges (presided over by the elected County Judge) are separately allocated and not counted here. TX has ~474 District Court judges statewide.)

Court seats

Rusk

Traffic fatalities

10

25.75 per 100k adults (18+)

Fatal crashes

10