Tattnall 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 $26,606 (34.4%) under the Georgia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 3.7% below the national average, so the nominal median of $50,747 is worth $52,697 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 23.4%, 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 20.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting employs 713 workers (25.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $54,914. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,391 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $920M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $73,640 while Retail Trade averages $28,035, a 2.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 42.65x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.5% of the employment across them, the largest being resource and agricultural commodities. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.8x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 71% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 18.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Georgia rate of 10.3%, and up from 17.8% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 68.8% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 21.2%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 6.8% of the vacant stock, or 1.3% of all housing units against the 18.9% 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: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $32,032 can pay without cost burden (~$801/mo), and 28.7% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 46.9% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 11% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Tattnall County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Tattnall County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 42.65x concentration and 63 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans forestry and logging, crop production, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37.5% of the employment across them, the largest being resource and agricultural commodities. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.