Washington 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 $16,358 (21.9%) under the Florida median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Elevated poverty: At 17.3%, 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 24.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 42 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 813 workers (33.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $30,538. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,912 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $943M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $78,226 while Retail Trade averages $30,538, a 2.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 42.78x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 56.4% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: resident household spending. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 80% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 15.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Florida rate of 14.7%, and down from 19.2% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 34.1% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 14.1% of the vacant stock, or 2.2% of all housing units against the 15.9% 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: 1 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $36,518 can pay without cost burden (~$913/mo), and 42.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.8% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 46.8% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 5.4% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.

Washington County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 42.78x concentration and 66 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Resident household spending accounts for 56.4% of it, with general merchandise retailers the largest single sub-sector at 48.6%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.