Piatt County, Illinois

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 7.3% below the national average, so the nominal median of $94,811 is worth $102,277 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Aging population: Median age of 43 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 511 workers (21% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $54,343. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 968 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $719M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $91,168 while Educational Services averages $17,123, a 5.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 5.89x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.8% 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 1.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 84.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes shown above sit below what a household on the median renter income of $63,785 can pay without cost burden (~$1,595/mo), and 26.8% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened; a cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 24.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 65% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Piatt County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Piatt County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 5.89x concentration and 66 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans crop production, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and credit intermediation and related activities, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.8% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.