Wayne County, Mississippi: Black Belt county. In 2024, voted R+33%. Democratic peak: D+97 in 1940.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+33MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Black BeltAkashic typology
- Population
- 19,7182024 5-year
- Median household income
- $37,6192024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 56.5%2024 5-year
- Black
- 37.9%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 2.2%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+97 in 1940MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+86 in 1964MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Lincoln County, MS · similarity 1.00
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Wayne CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Wayne County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | +85.7% |
| 1896 | +90.4% |
| 1900 | +67.2% |
| 1904 | No data |
| 1908 | No data |
| 1912 | +84.6% |
| 1916 | +85.3% |
| 1920 | +61.5% |
| 1924 | +88.3% |
| 1928 | +52.1% |
| 1932 | +95.2% |
| 1936 | +93.7% |
| 1940 | +96.9% |
| 1944 | +95.1% |
| 1948 | +9.7% |
| 1952 | +38.2% |
| 1956 | +52.6% |
| 1960 | +9.7% |
| 1964 | −85.5% |
| 1968 | +9.7% |
| 1972 | −64.9% |
| 1976 | +4.4% |
| 1980 | −4.7% |
| 1984 | −27.8% |
| 1988 | −21.7% |
| 1992 | −10.4% |
| 1996 | −8.7% |
| 2000 | −21.5% |
| 2004 | −26.9% |
| 2008 | −21.8% |
| 2012 | −19.0% |
| 2016 | −25.7% |
| 2020 | −26.7% |
| 2024 | −32.7% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 3,028 | 6,013 | 9,119 | ||
| R | 3,624 | 6,307 | 10,056 | ||
| R | 3,524 | 5,990 | 9,599 | ||
| R | 4,148 | 6,111 | 10,332 | ||
| R | 3,890 | 6,070 | 10,022 | ||
| R | 3,193 | 5,562 | 8,795 | ||
| R | 2,981 | 4,635 | 7,705 | ||
| R | 2,652 | 3,219 | 6,490 | ||
| R | 3,064 | 3,874 | 7,783 | ||
| R | 2,889 | 4,496 | 7,414 | ||
| R | 2,818 | 5,000 | 7,836 | ||
| R | 3,494 | 3,844 | 7,383 | ||
| D | 3,306 | 3,022 | 6,422 | ||
| R | 975 | 4,648 | 5,663 | ||
| O | 739 | 247 | 5,075 | ||
| R | 276 | 3,539 | 3,815 | ||
| O | 707 | 490 | 2,233 | ||
| D | 1,493 | 373 | 2,129 | ||
| D | 1,604 | 717 | 2,321 | ||
| O | 137 | 4 | 1,376 | ||
| D | 1,380 | 35 | 1,415 | ||
| D | 1,388 | 22 | 1,410 | ||
| D | 1,367 | 44 | 1,412 | ||
| D | 1,023 | 23 | 1,050 | ||
| D | 917 | 289 | 1,206 | ||
| D | 905 | 56 | 961 | ||
| D | 547 | 112 | 707 | ||
| D | 787 | 47 | 868 | ||
| D | 569 | 15 | 655 | ||
| — | — | — | — | ||
| — | — | — | — | ||
| D | 422 | 74 | 518 | ||
| D | 655 | 30 | 691 | ||
| D | 390 | 6 | 448 | ||
| — | — | — | — | ||
| — | — | — | — | ||
| — | — | — | — | ||
| — | — | — | — |
Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
American
12.5%
English
10.0%
Irish
2.9%
German
2.5%
Scottish
1.6%
Italian
0.6%
French
0.6%
African American
30.3%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
Sample size too small to break out by ancestry reliably.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 39.4 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$37,619
Wayne County ranks in the bottom 5% of US counties.
Wayne County$37,619
Mississippi$56,447
United States$80,734
Wayne County ranks in the bottom 5% of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
22.8%
Children face higher poverty than working-age adults.
Children under 1829.0%
Working age (18–64)21.4%
Seniors (65+)14.5%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
97.2%
speak English only
Spanish2.5%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.2%
Other Indo-European0.1%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 39.5% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Wayne County sits in Mississippi's timber belt, where a predominantly rural, majority-white electorate has shifted decisively toward Republican presidential candidates over the past two decades, with 2024 margins exceeding 30 points.
The Democratic margin here reached ninety-seven points in 1940. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved six points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was thirty-three points. The recent movement, modest against a deep Democratic baseline, mirrors a broader rightward drift across the Black Belt.
The economic context is part of the story: a median household income of $37,619 and a 23% poverty rate. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Lincoln County and Covington County.
Most similar counties
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Wayne County, Mississippi. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/28153/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More in Mississippi
More black belt counties
Frequently asked questions
How did Wayne County, Mississippi vote in 2024?
In 2024, Wayne County, Mississippi voted Republican by 32.7 points (R+33), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 9,119 votes cast, 3,028 went Democratic and 6,013 went Republican.
What is Wayne County, Mississippi's political typology?
Akashic places Wayne County, Mississippi in the "Black Belt" typology — Black-majority counties of the rural South — long the most Democratic ground in the region, now trending Republican at the margins. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 15 times, Republican 14 times, and other 3 times.
When did Wayne County, Mississippi last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Wayne County, Mississippi voted Democratic was 1976.
How many people live in Wayne County, Mississippi?
Wayne County, Mississippi has a population of 19,718 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Wayne County, Mississippi?
Median household income in Wayne County, Mississippi is $37,619 — below the national median of $80,734. The Mississippi state median is $56,447.
What is the political history of Wayne County, Mississippi?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Wayne County, Mississippi from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 15 went Democratic and 14 went Republican. The county's typology — "Black Belt" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.