Sullivan County, Indiana

• 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 $15,753 (21.9%) under the Indiana median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 12.2% below the national average, so the nominal median of $56,204 is worth $64,014 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 21.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 42 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 566 workers (28.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $53,021. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,973 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Utilities averages $121,512 while Other Services (except Public Administration) averages $29,310, a 4.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Utilities concentrates at 13.00x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39% 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 2.3x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 76.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 10.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Indiana rate of 8.8%, and down from 14.7% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 52.9% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 10.5%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 23.4% of the vacant stock, or 2.5% of all housing units against the 10.9% 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 $32,325 can pay without cost burden (~$808/mo), and 32.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 54.8% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 5.4% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Sullivan County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Sullivan County shows strong potential for utilities attraction, with a 13.00x concentration and 215 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans utilities, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and crop production, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.