Livingston 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 $4,742 (7.4%) under the Kentucky median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 13.9% below the national average, so the nominal median of $58,984 is worth $68,506 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 19.3%, 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 21.0 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 46 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Construction employs 787 workers (32.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $88,300. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 541 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $519M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Transportation and Warehousing averages $98,650 while Retail Trade averages $26,630, a 3.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Mining (except Oil and Gas) concentrates at 110.83x 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, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.4% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.1x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 81.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 22.3% of housing units are vacant, above the Kentucky rate of 10.3%, and up from 20.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 32.7% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5.1% of the vacant stock, or 1.1% of all housing units against the 22.3% 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: 1 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $36,518 can pay without cost burden (~$913/mo), and 29.4% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 28.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 54.1% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 5.4% between 2019 and 2024, from 4,120 to 3,897.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Livingston County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Livingston County shows strong potential for mining (except oil and gas) attraction, with a 110.83x concentration and 461 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 28.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans mining (except oil and gas), heavy and civil engineering construction, and support activities for transportation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.4% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.