Caribou County, Idaho

• 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 $9,018 (11.6%) under the Idaho median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 4.5% below the national average, so the nominal median of $68,782 is worth $72,023 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 18.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 815 workers (31.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $97,345. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 543 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Utilities averages $98,588 while Retail Trade averages $32,339, a 3.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 9.38x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 6 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35.8% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.5x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 81.6% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 21.6% of housing units are vacant, above the Idaho rate of 10.3%, and down from 22.9% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 52.9% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 6.1% of the vacant stock, or 1.3% of all housing units against the 21.6% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $40,662 can pay without cost burden (~$1,017/mo), and 35% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.4% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 62.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 21.1-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Caribou County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Caribou County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 9.38x concentration and 116 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.4% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans crop production, waste management and remediation services, and construction of buildings, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35.8% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.