Covington County, Mississippi

• 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 $11,396 (20.2%) under the Mississippi median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 13.0% below the national average, so the nominal median of $45,051 is worth $51,783 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 19.8%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 18.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,556 workers (45.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $46,382. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,375 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Transportation and Warehousing averages $88,254 while Retail Trade averages $32,117, a 2.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 22.76x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.3x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 77.5% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 12.8% of housing units are vacant, below the Mississippi rate of 14.6%, and down from 22.2% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 93.5% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 6.5%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 0% of the vacant stock, or 0% 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: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $31,931 can pay without cost burden (~$798/mo), and 18.3% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 23% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 53.2% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 5.9% between 2019 and 2024, from 8,008 to 7,535.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Covington County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Covington County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 22.76x concentration and 194 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans animal production and aquaculture, heavy and civil engineering construction, and wood product manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.