Alamosa County, Colorado

• 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 $40,073 (42.0%) under the Colorado median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 3.1% above the national average, so the nominal median of $55,397 is worth $53,731 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 17.2%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Young population: Median age of 33 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 1,090 workers (29.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $39,129. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,962 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $912M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $72,196 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $23,525, a 3.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 8.89x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 43.2% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $47,939 can pay without cost burden (~$1,198/mo), and 35.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 63.4% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 15.9-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Alamosa County awards 1,002 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Alamosa County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 8.89x concentration and 225 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans crop production, utilities, and furniture, home furnishings, and other retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 43.2% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.