Madison 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 $13,857 (19.1%) under the North Carolina median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 3.5% below the national average, so the nominal median of $58,531 is worth $60,654 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• 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 583 workers (19.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $50,795. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 887 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $632M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $116,135 while Retail Trade averages $25,988, a 4.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Educational Services concentrates at 4.42x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.2% of the employment across them, the largest being education economy. 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 4.9x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 77.5% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 26.5% of housing units are vacant, above the North Carolina rate of 12.5%, and up from 23.4% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 35.3% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 19.2% of the vacant stock, or 5.1% of all housing units against the 26.5% headline vacancy rate. That is the figure to plan an incoming employer's housing against, 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 $36,602 can pay without cost burden (~$915/mo), and 31.4% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 18.2% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 23.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 55.5% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 8.5% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Madison County awards 232 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Madison County shows meaningful potential for educational services attraction, with a 4.42x concentration and 373 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans educational services, nursing and residential care facilities, and private households, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.2% of the employment across them, the largest being education economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.