Echols County, Georgia

• 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 $17,864 (23.1%) under the Georgia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 11.7% below the national average, so the nominal median of $59,489 is worth $67,371 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.2%, 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 20.0 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 30 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting employs 281 workers (89.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $54,537. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 196 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $54M (2024).

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 171.42x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.1x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 75.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 15.5% of housing units are vacant, above the Georgia rate of 10.3%, and down from 16.6% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 84.8% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 15.2%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 0% of the vacant stock, or 0% of all housing units against the 15.5% 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 $46,167 can pay without cost burden (~$1,154/mo), and 29.7% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 64.9% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Echols County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Echols County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 171.42x concentration and 24 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.