44,330 people (2024 Census estimate, +2.4% since 2020)
363 square miles of land · 122 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
7 active community water systems list DeKalb County in the area they serve, reporting 25,013 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| AUBURN WATER DEPARTMENT groundwater · local government · IN5217001 | 12,800 served |
| GARRETT WATER UTILITY groundwater · local government · IN5217004 | 6,390 served |
| BUTLER WATER DEPARTMENT groundwater · local government · IN5217003 | 2,700 served |
| WATERLOO WATER WORKS groundwater · local government · IN5217007 | 2,242 served |
| ST. JOE WATER DEPARTMENT groundwater · local government · IN5217006 | 460 served |
| CORUNNA WATER UTILITY groundwater · local government · IN5217008 | 255 served |
| BEN MAR CHATEAU groundwater · private · IN5217002 | 166 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 87 people were held in DeKalb County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2024), or 315 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2019 it was about 86.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
4 school districts have their office in DeKalb County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $44.2 million — $38 million to run schools, about $10,445 per student, plus $4.5 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $17.4 million local (mostly property tax), $26.8 million state, $3.7 million federal. Long-term debt: $18.5 million.
Spent $25.5 million — $20.2 million to run schools, about $12,053 per student, plus $4.4 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $8.5 million local (mostly property tax), $16.2 million state, $2 million federal. Long-term debt: $21.5 million.
Spent $40.6 million — $36.3 million to run schools, about $29,355 per student, plus $1.7 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $22.2 million local (mostly property tax), $14.5 million state, $9.6 million federal. Long-term debt: $4.2 million.
Spent $7.1 million — $5.6 million to run schools, about $16,031 per student, plus $1.1 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $4.5 million local (mostly property tax), $2.7 million state, $346,000 federal. Long-term debt: $1.6 million.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost DeKalb County about $13.4 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Very High; social vulnerability: Relatively Low.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
149 bridges in DeKalb County: 58 in good condition, 89 fair, and 2 poor (1.3%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| CR 28 over CEDAR CREEK · built 1972 | 1,200 vehicles a day |
| CR 24 over CEDAR CREEK · built 1984 | 350 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $17.3 million of work in DeKalb County in fiscal 2025, about $401 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Indiana are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for DeKalb County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have DeKalb County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Indiana: the state government and every county in Indiana.
Nearby counties: Steuben County (17 mi) · Allen County (21 mi) · Noble County (21 mi) · Williams County, OH (25 mi) · Defiance County, OH (27 mi) · LaGrange County (28 mi).