Grafton 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 $10,770 (10.9%) 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 $88,261 is worth $84,703 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 11.0 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• 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: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 13,862 workers (31.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $103,707. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 6,263 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $9.9B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $124,257 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $34,695, a 3.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation concentrates at 6.84x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 14 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35.9% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• 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 3.9x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 71.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 28.5% of housing units are vacant, above the New Hampshire rate of 14.3%, and down from 34.4% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 84.4% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5% of the vacant stock, or 1.4% of all housing units against the 28.5% 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 $54,415 can pay without cost burden (~$1,360/mo), and 41.8% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 19.8% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 24.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 60.5% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 3 institutions in Grafton County award 3,367 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Grafton County shows strong potential for scenic and sightseeing transportation attraction, with a 6.84x concentration and 75 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans scenic and sightseeing transportation, educational services, and forestry and logging, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 35.9% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.