Belknap County, New Hampshire

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $6,248 (6.3%) under the New Hampshire median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 4.2% above the national average, so the nominal median of $92,783 is worth $89,043 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Aging population: Median age of 48 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 5,010 workers (25.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $42,007. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,983 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $4.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $87,961 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $30,996, a 2.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing concentrates at 4.32x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 14 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 62.4% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: resident household spending. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.
• Attraction whitespace: 4 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 80.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 32.5% of housing units are vacant, above the New Hampshire rate of 14.3%, and down from 35.1% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 88.5% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 2.5% of the vacant stock, or 0.8% of all housing units against the 32.5% 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 $43,562 can pay without cost burden (~$1,089/mo), and 43.8% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 21.8% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 30.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 62.7% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Belknap County award 173 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Belknap County shows meaningful potential for fabricated metal product manufacturing attraction, with a 4.32x concentration and 1,025 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 30.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Resident household spending accounts for 62.4% of it, with fabricated metal product manufacturing the largest single sub-sector at 13.9%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.