Sioux County, Nebraska

• 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 $22,546 (29.5%) under the Nebraska median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 9.9% below the national average, so the nominal median of $53,929 is worth $59,855 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.9%, 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 13.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 44 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting employs 69 workers, at an average wage of $43,154. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 76 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $129M (2024).

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 339.66x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 1.8x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• Elevated vacancy: 28.7% of housing units are vacant, above the Nebraska rate of 7.6%, and down from 32.3% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 56.8% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 0% of the vacant stock, or 0% of all housing units against the 28.7% 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: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $50,469 can pay without cost burden (~$1,262/mo), and 6.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 59.7% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 10.9% between 2019 and 2024, from 640 to 570.
• Short commutes: 19.7-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Sioux County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Sioux County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 339.66x concentration and 69 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.