Ravalli 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 $1,226 (1.7%) under the Montana median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 5.4% below the national average, so the nominal median of $71,283 is worth $75,352 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 7.0 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 49 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 2,098 workers (20.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $60,952. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,950 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.9B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $93,337 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $24,628, a 3.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 8.63x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 15 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 resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 6.7x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 79.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 11.9% of housing units are vacant, below the Montana rate of 13.2%, and down from 12.4% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 46.1% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 18.2% of the vacant stock, or 2.2% of all housing units against the 11.9% 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 $41,079 can pay without cost burden (~$1,027/mo), and 38.6% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 15.6% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 29% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 55.1% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 12% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Ravalli County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Ravalli County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 8.63x concentration and 35 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 29% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans forestry and logging, wood product manufacturing, and animal production and aquaculture, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 37% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.