Caroline County, Maryland

• 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 $35,221 (34.0%) under the Maryland median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 5.0% above the national average, so the nominal median of $68,457 is worth $65,197 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 19.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 1,351 workers (25% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $38,748. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,825 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $68,343 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $21,807, a 3.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 10.91x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 38.3% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.2x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 71.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $43,828 can pay without cost burden (~$1,096/mo), and 51.1% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 63.4% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Caroline County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Caroline County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 10.91x concentration and 331 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans crop production, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and truck transportation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 38.3% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.