45,654 people (2024 Census estimate, +1.3% since 2020)
411 square miles of land · 111 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.
9 active community water systems list Shelby County in the area they serve, reporting 21,521 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| INDIANA AMERICAN WATER - SHELBYVILLE groundwater · private · IN5273002 | 19,093 served |
| MORRISTOWN WATER DEPARTMENT groundwater · local government · IN5273003 | 1,218 served |
| WALDRON CONSERVANCY DISTRICT groundwater · local government · IN5273006 | 800 served |
| BLUE RIVER ESTATES MOBILE HOME PARK groundwater · private · IN5273001 | 99 served |
| EMERALD II groundwater · private · IN5273005 | 98 served |
| CREEKSIDE MOBILE HOME PARK groundwater · private · IN5273004 | 75 served |
| WOODLAND VILLAGE MOBILE HOME PARK groundwater · private · IN5273007 | 58 served |
| SUBURBAN COURT APARTMENTS groundwater · private · IN5273009 | 53 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 100 people were held in Shelby County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2024), or 353 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2019 it was about 204.
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 Shelby County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $69 million — $50.8 million to run schools, about $12,582 per student, plus $17.3 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $17.4 million local (mostly property tax), $36.5 million state, $7.3 million federal. Long-term debt: $31.3 million.
Spent $17.1 million — $14.7 million to run schools, about $10,427 per student, plus $740,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $6.3 million local (mostly property tax), $10.3 million state, $1.2 million federal. Long-term debt: $18.7 million.
Spent $19.6 million — $14.9 million to run schools, about $12,317 per student, plus $3.7 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $7.5 million local (mostly property tax), $9.6 million state, $1.1 million federal. Long-term debt: $13.3 million.
Spent $9.1 million — $7.3 million to run schools, about $11,500 per student, plus $1.3 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $3.2 million local (mostly property tax), $5.3 million state, $947,000 federal. Long-term debt: $5.3 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: Relatively Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Shelby County about $16.3 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively High; social vulnerability: Very Low.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
247 bridges in Shelby County: 79 in good condition, 150 fair, and 18 poor (7.3%). “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.
| US 52 over BRANDYWINE CREEK · built 1955 | 5,707 vehicles a day |
| PLEASANTVIEW ROAD over I-74 · built 1958 | 3,528 vehicles a day |
| CR 500 EAST over FOREMANS BRANCH · built 1930 | 300 vehicles a day |
| BLUE RIDGE ROAD over NORTH FORK LEWIS CREEK · built 1963 | 175 vehicles a day |
| CR 150W over FLATROCK RIVER · built 1900 | 175 vehicles a day |
| CR 150W over FLATROCK RIVER OVERFLOW · built 1940 | 175 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $7.9 million of work in Shelby County in fiscal 2025, about $175 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 Shelby 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 Shelby County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Indiana: the state government and every county in Indiana.
Nearby counties: Johnson County (16 mi) · Rush County (19 mi) · Hancock County (21 mi) · Decatur County (22 mi) · Bartholomew County (23 mi) · Marion County (26 mi).