Hoke 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 $7,476 (10.3%) 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 $64,912 is worth $70,557 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 17.1%, 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 12.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 34 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,899 workers (40.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $50,750. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,382 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Administrative and Support and Waste Management averages $63,076 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $17,819, a 3.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Nursing and Residential Care Facilities concentrates at 2.83x the national norm.
• Cluster depth: 6 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 46.9% 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 73% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $38,394 can pay without cost burden (~$960/mo), and 42.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 60% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Hoke County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Hoke County shows emerging potential for nursing and residential care facilities attraction, with a 2.83x concentration and 503 jobs in this sub-sector.

The concentrated base spans nursing and residential care facilities, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and general merchandise retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 46.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.