Ward County, North Dakota

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 13.0% below the national average, so the nominal median of $78,238 is worth $89,929 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 6.1 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: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 5,115 workers (22.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $72,364. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 5,449 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $5.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction averages $146,567 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $23,508, a 6.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Support Activities for Mining concentrates at 21.44x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 48.3% 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.
• 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 3.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Vacancy level: 12.1% of housing units are vacant, below the North Dakota rate of 12.3%, and down from 14.3% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 43.5% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 14.9%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 32.6% of the vacant stock, or 3.9% of all housing units against the 12.1% 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 $53,445 can pay without cost burden (~$1,336/mo), and 36.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 70% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 19.3-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Ward County awards 649 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Ward County shows strong potential for support activities for mining attraction, with a 21.44x concentration and 1,102 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans support activities for mining, building material and garden supply retailers, and repair and maintenance, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 48.3% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.