DeKalb County, Illinois

• 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 $12,666 (15.2%) under the Illinois median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 3.6% above the national average, so the nominal median of $70,724 is worth $68,266 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.8%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Young population: Median age of 33 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 5,317 workers (23.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $38,109. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 8,995 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $5.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $92,030 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $21,467, a 4.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: General Merchandise Retailers concentrates at 3.72x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 11 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 44.4% 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.
• 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 3.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $35,877 can pay without cost burden (~$897/mo), and 53.6% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 30.9% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Healthy participation: 68.4% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 4 institutions in DeKalb County award 5,193 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

DeKalb County shows meaningful potential for general merchandise retailers attraction, with a 3.72x concentration and 2,493 jobs in this sub-sector.

The concentrated base spans general merchandise retailers, truck transportation, and animal production and aquaculture, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 44.4% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.