Liberty 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 $16,897 (21.8%) under the Georgia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 6.1% below the national average, so the nominal median of $60,456 is worth $64,383 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 15.3%, 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 15.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 29 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 2,552 workers (21.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $35,132. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 6,908 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $5.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $91,299 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $21,301, a 4.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Utilities concentrates at 3.81x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.5% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 13.3% of housing units are vacant, above the Georgia rate of 10.3%, and down from 16.8% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 52.2% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 16.1%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 28.2% of the vacant stock, or 3.8% of all housing units against the 13.3% 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.
• Affordable rent tiers: 1 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $49,111 can pay without cost burden (~$1,228/mo), and 45% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 66.7% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Liberty County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Liberty County shows meaningful potential for utilities attraction, with a 3.81x concentration and 223 jobs in this sub-sector.

The concentrated base spans utilities, general merchandise retailers, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.5% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.