{"meta":{"dataset":"legal-need","title":"Legal need by county: who may need a lawyer, from the American Community Survey","version":"1.0.0","doi":"10.5281/zenodo.23741886","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23741886","conceptDoi":"10.5281/zenodo.23741885","license":"CC BY 4.0","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","attribution":"Source: Probative, Legal need by county: who may need a lawyer, from the American Community Survey, version 1.0.0, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23741886, licensed CC BY 4.0.","citation":"Probative. (2026). Legal need by county: who may need a lawyer, from the American Community Survey (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23741886","disclaimer":"Not legal advice. These are survey estimates of people with a characteristic, not counts of legal problems or cases: a renter, a veteran or a noncitizen does not necessarily need a lawyer. Each estimate has a margin of error, and small counties' estimates are rough.","notice":"Probative is a marketing firm, not a law firm; not legal advice.","lastChecked":"2026-10-28","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/index.json","humanUrl":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/legal-need/","statusCodes":{"P":"primary source","S":"secondary source","D":"ABA model default","U":"open question"}},"summary":"The people in every U.S. county who may need a lawyer, counted from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 5-year estimates: residents aged 65 and over, residents who are not U.S. citizens, foreign-born residents who arrived since 2010, residents who speak English less than very well (and Spanish speakers among them), divorced residents (and, for states, people divorced in the last year), veterans and veterans with a VA disability rating, residents with a disability, households on SSI, renter households and renters paying 30 or 50 percent of income on rent, residents without health insurance, workers who drive to work and median household income. One record per county (3,144, in the 50 states and DC), per state and for the US, each measure with its 90% margin of error and its share of the population it is counted in.","key":"jurisdiction","count":3196,"keys":[{"key":"AK","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/AK.json","records":31},{"key":"AL","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/AL.json","records":68},{"key":"AR","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/AR.json","records":76},{"key":"AZ","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/AZ.json","records":16},{"key":"CA","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/CA.json","records":59},{"key":"CO","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/CO.json","records":65},{"key":"CT","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/CT.json","records":10},{"key":"DC","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/DC.json","records":2},{"key":"DE","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/DE.json","records":4},{"key":"FL","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/FL.json","records":68},{"key":"GA","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/GA.json","records":160},{"key":"HI","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/HI.json","records":6},{"key":"IA","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/IA.json","records":100},{"key":"ID","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/ID.json","records":45},{"key":"IL","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/IL.json","records":103},{"key":"IN","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/IN.json","records":93},{"key":"KS","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/KS.json","records":106},{"key":"KY","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/KY.json","records":121},{"key":"LA","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/LA.json","records":65},{"key":"MA","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/MA.json","records":15},{"key":"MD","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/MD.json","records":25},{"key":"ME","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/ME.json","records":17},{"key":"MI","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/MI.json","records":84},{"key":"MN","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/MN.json","records":88},{"key":"MO","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/MO.json","records":116},{"key":"MS","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/MS.json","records":83},{"key":"MT","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/MT.json","records":57},{"key":"NC","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/NC.json","records":101},{"key":"ND","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/ND.json","records":54},{"key":"NE","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/NE.json","records":94},{"key":"NH","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/NH.json","records":11},{"key":"NJ","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/NJ.json","records":22},{"key":"NM","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/NM.json","records":34},{"key":"NV","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/NV.json","records":18},{"key":"NY","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/NY.json","records":63},{"key":"OH","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/OH.json","records":89},{"key":"OK","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/OK.json","records":78},{"key":"OR","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/OR.json","records":37},{"key":"PA","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/PA.json","records":68},{"key":"RI","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/RI.json","records":6},{"key":"SC","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/SC.json","records":47},{"key":"SD","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/SD.json","records":67},{"key":"TN","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/TN.json","records":96},{"key":"TX","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/TX.json","records":255},{"key":"US","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/US.json","records":1},{"key":"UT","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/UT.json","records":30},{"key":"VA","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/VA.json","records":134},{"key":"VT","url":"https://probativegrowth.com/data/v1/legal-need/jurisdictions/VT.json","records":15},{"key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