Montrose 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 $23,350 (24.5%) 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 $72,120 is worth $69,952 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 7.0 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 46 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 2,403 workers (19.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $42,034. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,611 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.4B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $85,993 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $26,172, a 3.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 4.66x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 21 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.4% 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: 4 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.4x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 75.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $46,997 can pay without cost burden (~$1,175/mo), and 46.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 25.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 57.1% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 9.9% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Short commutes: 21.1-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Montrose County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Montrose County shows meaningful potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 4.66x concentration and 195 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans wood product manufacturing, support activities for transportation, and utilities, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.4% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.