McDuffie 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 $20,620 (26.7%) under the Georgia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 8.1% below the national average, so the nominal median of $56,733 is worth $61,733 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 20.3%, 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 17.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,764 workers (42.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $58,314. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,160 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $875M (2024).

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 3.47x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 63.9% 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 14.3% of housing units are vacant, above the Georgia rate of 10.3%, and up from 12.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 53.3% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 10.6% of the vacant stock, or 1.5% of all housing units against the 14.3% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, 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 $31,691 can pay without cost burden (~$792/mo), and 45.7% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 26.4% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 24.1% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 54.5% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 1.2% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in McDuffie County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

McDuffie County shows meaningful potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 3.47x concentration and 162 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.1% 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 63.9% of it, with general merchandise retailers the largest single sub-sector at 36.5%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.