Johnson County, Missouri

• 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 $3,430 (4.9%) under the Missouri median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 9.2% below the national average, so the nominal median of $67,272 is worth $74,088 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 6.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 32 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 1,920 workers (21% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $18,988. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 5,842 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $68,024 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $18,988, a 3.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods concentrates at 3.37x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.1% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. 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 3.5x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $42,693 can pay without cost burden (~$1,067/mo), and 38% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 66.3% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Johnson County award 2,882 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Johnson County shows meaningful potential for merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods attraction, with a 3.37x concentration and 582 jobs in this sub-sector.

The concentrated base spans merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods, telecommunications, and general merchandise retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.1% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.