Hardin 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 $8,905 (12.5%) 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 $62,484 is worth $67,332 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 17.3%, 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 16.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 35 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,740 workers (38.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $66,721. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,326 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.4B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $84,520 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $11,839, a 7.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 15.46x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 31.1% 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.4x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 74.7% 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 $40,974 can pay without cost burden (~$1,024/mo), and 29.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Healthy participation: 61.6% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Hardin County awards 637 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Hardin County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 15.46x concentration and 198 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans animal production and aquaculture, fabricated metal product manufacturing, and transportation equipment manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 31.1% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.