Madison 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 $16,268 (23.0%) 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 $54,434 is worth $59,949 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 19.4 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 594 workers (28.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $47,542. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 831 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $368M (2024).

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 14.25x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45.4% 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 2.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 73.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 20.2% of housing units are vacant, above the Missouri rate of 11.2%, and up from 15.6% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 46.2% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 8.6% of the vacant stock, or 1.7% of all housing units against the 20.2% 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 $35,737 can pay without cost burden (~$893/mo), and 37.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 25% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 56.4% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 8.4% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Madison County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Madison County shows strong potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 14.25x concentration and 122 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans wood product manufacturing, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and general merchandise retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45.4% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.