Cumberland County, North Carolina

• 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 $11,097 (15.3%) under the North Carolina median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 8.0% below the national average, so the nominal median of $61,291 is worth $66,621 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.7%, 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 7.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 32 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 16,036 workers (20.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $35,851. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 36,488 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $24.4B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $86,256 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $21,259, a 4.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Warehousing and Storage concentrates at 2.70x the national norm.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45.9% 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.
• 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 3.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $46,059 can pay without cost burden (~$1,151/mo), and 48.1% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 64.6% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 21.6-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: the 6 largest of 7 institutions in Cumberland County award 5,981 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Cumberland County shows emerging potential for warehousing and storage attraction, with a 2.70x concentration and 3,305 jobs in this sub-sector.

The concentrated base spans warehousing and storage, motor vehicle and parts dealers, and general merchandise retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45.9% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.