Onslow 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 $4,240 (5.9%) under the North Carolina median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 7.9% below the national average, so the nominal median of $68,148 is worth $73,993 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 9.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 28 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 9,105 workers (25.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $22,011. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 14,876 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $12.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $74,061 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $22,011, a 3.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: General Merchandise Retailers concentrates at 2.37x the national norm.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 54.1% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: visitor economy. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 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 3.5x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 13.8% of housing units are vacant, above the North Carolina rate of 12.5%, and down from 18.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 39.2% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 24.6% of the vacant stock, or 3.4% of all housing units against the 13.8% 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.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $48,623 can pay without cost burden (~$1,216/mo), and 47.2% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 70% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Onslow County award 1,519 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Onslow County shows emerging potential for general merchandise retailers attraction, with a 2.37x concentration and 2,288 jobs in this sub-sector.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Visitor economy accounts for 54.1% of it, all of it in food services and drinking places. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.