Bennett County, South 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 $21,331 (28.4%) under the South Dakota median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 11.4% below the national average, so the nominal median of $53,750 is worth $60,666 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 29.9%, 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 17.4 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 27 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Construction employs 130 workers (41.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $40,505. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 363 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $143M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $53,300 while Retail Trade averages $26,619, a 2.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 8.66x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• Elevated vacancy: 20.1% of housing units are vacant, above the South Dakota rate of 10.5%, and up from 17.4% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 72.7% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 8.7%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 11.3% of the vacant stock, or 2.3% of all housing units against the 20.1% 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 $45,417 can pay without cost burden (~$1,135/mo), and 19.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 50.2% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 13% between 2019 and 2024, from 1,356 to 1,180.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Bennett County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Bennett County shows strong potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 8.66x concentration and 33 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.