Caddo County, Oklahoma

• 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 $9,686 (14.9%) under the Oklahoma median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 12.2% below the national average, so the nominal median of $55,353 is worth $63,044 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 18.3%, 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 19.9 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 790 workers (27% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $32,796. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,111 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Utilities averages $105,545 while Retail Trade averages $32,796, a 3.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Utilities concentrates at 21.03x 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 23.9% 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 2.1x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 72.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 21.6% of housing units are vacant, above the Oklahoma rate of 12%, and down from 22% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 72.6% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 14.2%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 9.4% of the vacant stock, or 2% of all housing units against the 21.6% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, 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 $36,783 can pay without cost burden (~$920/mo), and 29.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 53.8% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 6.5% between 2019 and 2024, from 12,124 to 11,336.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Caddo County awards 131 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Caddo County shows strong potential for utilities attraction, with a 21.03x concentration and 412 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The concentrated base spans utilities, support activities for mining, and heavy and civil engineering construction, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 23.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.