Roseau 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 $14,588 (16.4%) 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 14.3 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: Manufacturing employs 3,819 workers (60.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $75,124. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 999 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $79,551 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $18,965, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 3.84x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Attraction whitespace: 5 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.5x 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: 12.8% of housing units are vacant, above the Minnesota rate of 9.3%, and down from 21.4% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 43% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 13.4% of the vacant stock, or 1.7% of all housing units against the 12.8% 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 $42,482 can pay without cost burden (~$1,062/mo), and 30.3% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 26.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 66.2% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 17.1-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 Roseau County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Roseau County shows meaningful potential for crop production attraction, with a 3.84x concentration and 102 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.