Riley County, Kansas

• 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 $13,177 (17.7%) under the Kansas median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 9.8% below the national average, so the nominal median of $61,098 is worth $67,736 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 19.9%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 13.2 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Young population: Median age of 26 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 3,710 workers (19.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $20,566. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 8,559 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.8B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $81,685 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,566, a 4.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional Orgs concentrates at 4.21x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.9% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 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 3.9x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Renter-majority market: 46.1% owner-occupied; flexible labor mobility but consider home-buying pipeline if attracting families.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $42,207 can pay without cost burden (~$1,055/mo), and 47.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 71.5% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 16.3-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 4 institutions in Riley County award 6,600 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Riley County shows meaningful potential for religious, grantmaking, civic, professional orgs attraction, with a 4.21x concentration and 987 jobs in this sub-sector.

The concentrated base spans religious, grantmaking, civic, professional orgs, construction of buildings, and furniture, home furnishings, and other retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.9% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.