Marin County, California
Demographics & Population
Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020-2024 · 5-Year Estimates
Household Income
Population Profile
Educational Attainment
Employment Overview
- Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
- Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 15.6% above the national average, so the nominal median of $149,091 is worth $128,971 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
- Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 25.4 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
- Aging population: Median age of 47 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.
Economy & Industry
Bureau of Labor Statistics QCEW · Bureau of Economic Analysis
- Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 17,484 workers (21.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $83,330. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 15,376 and is counted separately.
- Economic scale: Regional GDP of $36.9B (2024).
- Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $181,770 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $38,227, a 4.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.
EP customers get year-over-year deltas, WARN notices, and SEC filings for every sector tracked above, surfaced as proactive alerts, not after-the-fact news.
Industry Concentration
Location Quotient measures regional specialization vs. national average. LQ > 1.0 = concentrated.
Cluster Depth
Attraction Opportunities
- Top specialization: Private Households concentrates at 5.31x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
- Cluster depth: 13 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 36.7% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
- Attraction whitespace: 7 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.
Housing & Affordability
Census ACS · HUD Fair Market Rents FY2026
Housing Overview
for rent or sale
HUD Fair Market Rents
- Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 10.1x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
- Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $87,278 can pay without cost burden (~$2,182/mo), and 52.9% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 29.7% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.
Workforce Pipeline
Labor force readiness, commuting, and workforce composition
Labor Market Overview
Education & Talent Pipeline
Aging Workforce
Workforce by Occupation
- Succession risk is real: 26.4% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
- Healthy participation: 62.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
- Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Marin County award 1,079 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.
AI Insights
Sample output. Pulse AI analysis draws on 10 federal data sources.
Marin County shows strong potential for private households attraction, with a 5.31x concentration and 798 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.4% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.
The concentrated base spans private households, chemical manufacturing, and publishing industries and telecommunications, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 36.7% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.
Industry Shift Analysis
Prospect Match Scores
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Schedule a DemoData Sources
Updated from official federal government data.
American Community Survey figures on this page are 2020-2024 five-year averages rather than single-year counts. A five-year estimate pools 60 months of survey responses, so each value describes the period as a whole.
Frequently Asked Questions
Key economic and demographic figures for Marin County, California, from federal data sources.
What is the population of Marin County, California?
257,969 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates).
What is the median household income in Marin County, California?
$149,091 in nominal dollars (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-Year Estimates). Adjusted for local prices using the BEA all-items regional price parity for San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA (115.6 against a national average of 100), that is $128,971 at national average prices. BEA publishes regional price parity at metro level; there is no county-level figure.
What is the unemployment rate in Marin County, California?
4.2% (2025 annual average, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, LAUS).
What is the GDP of Marin County, California?
$36.9B (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, CAGDP2).
