Tyrrell 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 $30,703 (42.4%) under the North Carolina median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 5.7% below the national average, so the nominal median of $41,685 is worth $44,205 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 18.7%, 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 22.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 48 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 129 workers (29.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $23,366. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 357 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $126M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting averages $59,220 while Retail Trade averages $23,366, a 2.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 5.65x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• 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: 77.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 30.6% of housing units are vacant, above the North Carolina rate of 12.5%, and up from 24.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 44.6% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 13.6% of the vacant stock, or 4.2% of all housing units against the 30.6% 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: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $33,009 can pay without cost burden (~$825/mo), and 44.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 43.1% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 23.4% between 2019 and 2024, from 1,620 to 1,241.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Tyrrell County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Tyrrell County shows strong potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 5.65x concentration and 27 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.