Scotland County, North Carolina: Black Belt county. In 2024, voted R+7%. Democratic peak: D+91 in 1900.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+7MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Black BeltAkashic typology
- Population
- 33,5902024 5-year
- Median household income
- $45,7302024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 40.6%2024 5-year
- Black
- 37.0%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 4.0%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+91 in 1900MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+28 in 1972MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Anson County, NC · similarity 0.96
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Scotland CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Scotland 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 | No data |
| 1896 | No data |
| 1900 | +90.7% |
| 1904 | +81.7% |
| 1908 | +78.7% |
| 1912 | +88.9% |
| 1916 | +74.5% |
| 1920 | +69.6% |
| 1924 | +75.0% |
| 1928 | +49.9% |
| 1932 | +85.0% |
| 1936 | +82.0% |
| 1940 | +84.5% |
| 1944 | +77.3% |
| 1948 | +56.7% |
| 1952 | +29.4% |
| 1956 | +44.4% |
| 1960 | +48.0% |
| 1964 | +51.5% |
| 1968 | +8.9% |
| 1972 | −28.3% |
| 1976 | +39.1% |
| 1980 | +34.1% |
| 1984 | −0.6% |
| 1988 | +9.4% |
| 1992 | +23.5% |
| 1996 | +24.2% |
| 2000 | −20.1% |
| 2004 | +10.8% |
| 2008 | +15.1% |
| 2012 | +16.8% |
| 2016 | +7.6% |
| 2020 | −1.9% |
| 2024 | −6.9% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 6,754 | 7,767 | 14,626 | ||
| R | 7,186 | 7,473 | 14,775 | ||
| D | 7,319 | 6,256 | 13,928 | ||
| D | 8,215 | 5,831 | 14,156 | ||
| D | 8,151 | 6,005 | 14,217 | ||
| D | 6,386 | 5,141 | 11,547 | ||
| R | 3,740 | 5,627 | 9,403 | ||
| D | 4,870 | 2,858 | 8,299 | ||
| D | 5,175 | 2,980 | 9,360 | ||
| D | 3,865 | 3,199 | 7,084 | ||
| R | 4,028 | 4,077 | 8,117 | ||
| D | 4,446 | 2,133 | 6,782 | ||
| D | 4,430 | 1,932 | 6,384 | ||
| R | 1,938 | 3,485 | 5,472 | ||
| D | 2,252 | 1,717 | 5,985 | ||
| D | 3,844 | 1,229 | 5,073 | ||
| D | 3,643 | 1,279 | 4,922 | ||
| D | 3,042 | 1,171 | 4,213 | ||
| D | 2,912 | 1,590 | 4,502 | ||
| D | 1,957 | 359 | 2,819 | ||
| D | 2,372 | 303 | 2,675 | ||
| D | 2,981 | 250 | 3,231 | ||
| D | 3,183 | 314 | 3,497 | ||
| D | 2,608 | 208 | 2,822 | ||
| D | 1,761 | 588 | 2,349 | ||
| D | 1,469 | 205 | 1,685 | ||
| D | 1,705 | 306 | 2,011 | ||
| D | 938 | 137 | 1,075 | ||
| D | 751 | 9 | 835 | ||
| D | 714 | 85 | 799 | ||
| D | 646 | 65 | 711 | ||
| D | 925 | 44 | 971 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
English
6.6%
American
3.1%
German
2.9%
Irish
2.4%
Scottish
1.5%
Italian
1.0%
African American
29.6%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
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: 38.7 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
$45,730
Scotland County ranks in the bottom 10% of US counties.
Scotland County$45,730
North Carolina$72,388
United States$80,734
Scotland County ranks in the bottom 10% 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
25.8%
Children face higher poverty than working-age adults.
Children under 1839.0%
Working age (18–64)22.3%
Seniors (65+)13.9%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
94.8%
speak English only
Spanish2.6%
Other Indo-European1.2%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.9%
Other languages0.5%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 63.1% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Scotland County sits in North Carolina's Sandhills region with a population that is roughly 40% Black, making its electoral shifts a closely watched signal of rural coalition change in a perennial battleground state.
The Democratic margin here reached ninety-one points in 1900. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved five points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was seven 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 $45,730 and a 26% poverty rate. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Anson County and Pasquotank 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.
Scotland County, North Carolina. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/37165/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More in North Carolina
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Frequently asked questions
How did Scotland County, North Carolina vote in 2024?
In 2024, Scotland County, North Carolina voted Republican by 6.9 points (R+7), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 14,626 votes cast, 6,754 went Democratic and 7,767 went Republican.
What is Scotland County, North Carolina's political typology?
Akashic places Scotland County, North Carolina 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 27 times, Republican 5 times, and other 0 times.
When did Scotland County, North Carolina last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Scotland County, North Carolina voted Democratic was 2016.
How many people live in Scotland County, North Carolina?
Scotland County, North Carolina has a population of 33,590 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Scotland County, North Carolina?
Median household income in Scotland County, North Carolina is $45,730 — below the national median of $80,734. The North Carolina state median is $72,388.
What is the political history of Scotland County, North Carolina?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Scotland County, North Carolina from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 27 went Democratic and 5 went Republican. The county's typology — "Black Belt" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.