Faribault County, Minnesota

• 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 $22,247 (25.0%) under the Minnesota median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 13.9 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 954 workers (42.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $71,011. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 870 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $788M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $87,044 while Real Estate and Rental and Leasing averages $21,595, a 4.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 11.77x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 29.1% 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.0x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 79.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 11.9% of housing units are vacant, above the Minnesota rate of 9.3%, and down from 12.9% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 72% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 17.8%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 8.2% of the vacant stock, or 1% of all housing units against the 11.9% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $41,795 can pay without cost burden (~$1,045/mo), and 35.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 26.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 63.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 20.2-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Faribault County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Faribault County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 11.77x concentration and 86 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans animal production and aquaculture, food manufacturing, and nursing and residential care facilities, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 29.1% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.