Broadwater County, Montana

• 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 $2,135 (2.9%) under the Montana median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 4.3% below the national average, so the nominal median of $70,374 is worth $73,536 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 8.4 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 46 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 267 workers (28.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $19,859. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 262 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $307M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Administrative and Support and Waste Management averages $92,203 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $18,441, a 5.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 14.70x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 44.1% 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.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 6.1x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 87.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 11.2% of housing units are vacant, below the Montana rate of 13.2%, and down from 13.6% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 77.2% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 9% of the vacant stock, or 1% of all housing units against the 11.2% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $31,806 can pay without cost burden (~$795/mo), and 55.7% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 33.8% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 28.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 62.5% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Broadwater County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Broadwater County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 14.70x concentration and 39 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 28.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans animal production and aquaculture, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and wood product manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 44.1% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.