Lewis 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 $16,888 (26.5%) 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 $46,838 is worth $51,927 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 22%, 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 20.4 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: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 447 workers (36.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $53,223. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 564 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $252M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $90,999 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $15,376, a 5.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 4.81x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 6 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 54.1% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: health care economy. 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 2.0x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 79.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 17.3% of housing units are vacant, above the Kentucky rate of 10.3%, and down from 19.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 39.7% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 1.7% of the vacant stock, or 0.3% of all housing units against the 17.3% 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 $28,750 can pay without cost burden (~$719/mo), and 16.8% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 25.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 48.3% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 9.2% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Lewis County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Lewis County shows meaningful potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 4.81x concentration and 51 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.3% 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. Health care economy accounts for 54.1% of it, all of it in ambulatory health care services. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.