The national marine sanctuary is the site of a large number of historically significant shipwrecks.

The 2000 census[15] shows Manitowoc County as having 82,887 people, 32,721 households and 22,348 families.

Manitowoc County is fairly competitive in presidential elections; in 2016, Donald Trump became the first candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson from his 1964 landslide to win more than 55% of the vote.

He expanded his share to over 60% during the 2020 election, the first time since Dwight D. Eisenhower in his 1956 landslide that a Republican has hit 60% of the vote in the county.

The Netflix documentary series Making a Murderer (2015) explores the arrests and trials in 2007 of Manitowoc County residents Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey for the murder of Teresa Halbach, who disappeared in October 2005.

The series describes an earlier wrongful conviction of Avery, for which he served 18 years, and his subsequent lawsuit against Manitowoc County.

The Sheriffs officers have come under intense scrutiny for their involvement in the Halbach case due to Steven Avery's $36 million lawsuit and their questionable police and investigative techniques.

[19][20] In 2017, Charlie Berens created a comedic short-form video series called Manitowoc Minute, which features a fictitious news presenter character who exaggerates the culture and dialect of Wisconsin.