Pierce County, North Dakota

• 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 $17,292 (22.6%) under the North Dakota median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 11.0% below the national average, so the nominal median of $59,365 is worth $66,702 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 7.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 45 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Wholesale Trade employs 187 workers (33.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $64,689. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 231 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $267M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $65,152 while Information averages $27,278, a 2.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods concentrates at 3.72x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 7 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.8% of the employment across them, the largest being freight and distribution. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.5x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 81.6% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $40,800 can pay without cost burden (~$1,020/mo), and 35.1% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 25.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 60.5% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 11.3-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Pierce County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Pierce County shows meaningful potential for merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods attraction, with a 3.72x concentration and 85 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods, merchant wholesalers, durable goods, and credit intermediation and related activities, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.8% of the employment across them, the largest being freight and distribution. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.