Wicomico County, Maryland

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $27,468 (26.5%) under the Maryland median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 4.4% below the national average, so the nominal median of $76,210 is worth $79,718 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 6.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 9,930 workers (29.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $68,381. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 8,353 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $7.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $74,685 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $23,533, a 3.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 3.09x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 62.3% 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $53,082 can pay without cost burden (~$1,327/mo), and 47.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 66.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 3 institutions in Wicomico County award 2,583 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Wicomico County shows meaningful potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 3.09x concentration and 294 jobs in this sub-sector.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Resident household spending accounts for 62.3% of it, with general merchandise retailers the largest single sub-sector at 29.7%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.