Johnson County, Kentucky

• 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 $18,822 (29.5%) under the Kentucky 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 $44,904 is worth $49,783 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 22.8%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 18.9 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: Retail Trade employs 1,351 workers (43.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $31,208. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,437 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $619M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $74,786 while Retail Trade averages $31,208, a 2.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 5.92x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 66.3% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: resident household spending. 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 2.7x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• Elevated vacancy: 14.6% of housing units are vacant, above the Kentucky rate of 10.3%, and down from 20.2% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 71.4% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 11.2%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 11.7% of the vacant stock, or 1.7% of all housing units against the 14.6% 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: 1 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $26,029 can pay without cost burden (~$651/mo), and 31.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 47.3% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 13.9% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Johnson County awards 31 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Johnson County shows strong potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 5.92x concentration and 183 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.2% 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. Resident household spending accounts for 66.3% of it, with general merchandise retailers the largest single sub-sector at 26.3%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.