Wabaunsee County, Kansas

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 11.2% below the national average, so the nominal median of $76,908 is worth $86,608 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 10.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• 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: Manufacturing employs 261 workers (38.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $57,912. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 450 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $176M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $80,382 while Retail Trade averages $25,494, a 3.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Food Manufacturing concentrates at 17.39x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 4 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 55.4% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: goods manufacturing. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.

• 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: 81.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 14.4% of housing units are vacant, above the Kansas rate of 9.2%, and down from 16.7% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 45.1% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 6.2% of the vacant stock, or 0.9% of all housing units against the 14.4% 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 $44,955 can pay without cost burden (~$1,124/mo), and 27% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 27.8% 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.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Wabaunsee County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Wabaunsee County shows strong potential for food manufacturing attraction, with a 17.39x concentration and 220 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Goods manufacturing accounts for 55.4% of it, all of it in food manufacturing. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.