Cameron Parish, Louisiana

• 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 14.1% below the national average, so the nominal median of $75,278 is worth $87,634 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 18.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 44 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,322 workers (41.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $209,164. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 708 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $209,164 while Retail Trade averages $22,869, a 9.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Pipeline Transportation concentrates at 22.68x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• 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.
• High home ownership: 95.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 41.7% of housing units are vacant, above the Louisiana rate of 14.4%, and up from 33.7% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 48.7% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 3.4% of the vacant stock, or 1.4% of all housing units against the 41.7% 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 $43,472 can pay without cost burden (~$1,087/mo), and 8.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 27.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 57% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 32.5% between 2019 and 2024, from 3,313 to 2,235.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Cameron Parish per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Cameron Parish shows strong potential for pipeline transportation attraction, with a 22.68x concentration and 31 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.