Athens County, Ohio

• 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 $15,388 (21.6%) under the Ohio median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 7.2% below the national average, so the nominal median of $56,001 is worth $60,346 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 21.5%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Young population: Median age of 33 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 3,333 workers (28% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $59,073. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 8,172 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $71,444 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $19,784, a 3.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Pipeline Transportation concentrates at 4.83x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 41.5% 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: 4 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 3.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 13.1% of housing units are vacant, above the Ohio rate of 8.1%, and down from 15.5% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 51.8% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 15.2%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 27.5% of the vacant stock, or 3.6% of all housing units against the 13.1% 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.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $27,204 can pay without cost burden (~$680/mo), and 51.5% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 30.2% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Low participation: 57.4% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 1.5% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 3 institutions in Athens County award 9,869 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Athens County shows meaningful potential for pipeline transportation attraction, with a 4.83x concentration and 27 jobs in this sub-sector.

The concentrated base spans pipeline transportation, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and building material and garden supply retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 41.5% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.