Mason 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 $11,548 (18.1%) 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 $52,178 is worth $57,847 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 18.8%, 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 15.7 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 1,290 workers (27% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $35,574. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,227 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $87,181 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $14,062, a 6.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Building Material and Garden Supply Retailers concentrates at 3.13x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 4 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 89.7% 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.
• 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 3.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 12.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Kentucky rate of 10.3%, and down from 17.9% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 37.3% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 7.7%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 15.3% of the vacant stock, or 2% of all housing units against the 12.9% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $23,908 can pay without cost burden (~$598/mo), and 38.5% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 21.7% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 24.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 55.6% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 1.6% between 2019 and 2024, from 7,660 to 7,537.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Mason County awards 2,815 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Mason County shows meaningful potential for building material and garden supply retailers attraction, with a 3.13x concentration and 214 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.3% 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. Resident household spending accounts for 89.7% of it, with general merchandise retailers the largest single sub-sector at 54.9%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.