[3] Union County is included in the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Helms, Starnes, McRorie, and Belk families were prominent in the town as well as Monroe and Charlotte.

A second African-American boy, aged 7, was also convicted and sentenced to live in a juvenile reformatory until he was 21 for simply witnessing the act.

Union County remained traditionally "Solid South" until after the Civil Rights Movement.

The first Republican to win the county was Richard Nixon[17] with less than forty percent of the vote in a three-way race in 1968.

Union County has followed much of the South in turning towards the Republican Party following Nixon's election.