Indian River County, Florida

• 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 $1,077 (1.4%) under the Florida median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Aging population: Median age of 55 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 11,151 workers (23.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $67,621. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 5,056 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $11.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $144,464 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $30,383, a 4.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries concentrates at 3.11x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35% 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: 5 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 4.8x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 80.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 18.1% of housing units are vacant, above the Florida rate of 14.7%, and down from 26.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 65.2% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 18.2% of the vacant stock, or 3.3% of all housing units against the 18.1% headline vacancy rate. That is the figure to plan an incoming employer's housing against, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $46,812 can pay without cost burden (~$1,170/mo), and 51.1% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 28.5% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 31% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 48.6% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 12% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Indian River County awards 114 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Indian River County shows meaningful potential for amusement, gambling, and recreation industries attraction, with a 3.11x concentration and 2,339 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 31% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans amusement, gambling, and recreation industries, funds, trusts, and other financial vehicles, and crop production, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.