[5] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 8,283 people, 2,878 households, and 1,750 families residing in the county.

Today's Houston County is as solidly Republican as historically GOP-friendly East Tennessee.

The Board of Commissioners meets at the Houston County Courthouse the third Monday of odd months (January, March, May, July, September, November).

Formerly a part of Tennessee's 8th congressional district, which was represented by Blue Dog Democrat John Tanner, Houston County is now part of Tennessee's 7th congressional district and is represented by Republican Mark Green.

Democratic candidates failed to carry Houston County at the presidential level only twice prior to 2012.

In 1928, Herbert Hoover became the first Republican presidential candidate to ever carry Houston County, due to anti-Catholic voting against Al Smith in this "Bible Belt" region.

[19] In the 2012 presidential election, Mitt Romney became the first Republican in 80 years to win the county.