Modoc County, California

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $39,667 (40.0%) under the California median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 10.7% above the national average, so the nominal median of $59,455 is worth $53,708 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 17.9%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 10.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 48 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting employs 336 workers (32.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $54,067. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,097 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $688M (2024).

• Top specialization: Support Activities for Agriculture and Forestry concentrates at 22.77x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 41.6% of the employment across them, the largest being resource and agricultural commodities. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.8x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 77.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 31.4% of housing units are vacant, above the California rate of 7.5%, and up from 31.2% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 48.3% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5.6% of the vacant stock, or 1.8% of all housing units against the 31.4% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $40,313 can pay without cost burden (~$1,008/mo), and 33.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 26.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 47.4% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 4.7% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Modoc County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Modoc County shows strong potential for support activities for agriculture and forestry attraction, with a 22.77x concentration and 112 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans support activities for agriculture and forestry, crop production, and religious, grantmaking, civic, professional orgs, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 41.6% of the employment across them, the largest being resource and agricultural commodities. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.