Humphreys County, Tennessee

• 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 $8,979 (12.9%) under the Tennessee median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 8.1% below the national average, so the nominal median of $60,616 is worth $65,959 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.8%, 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 20.0 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 43 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,623 workers (38.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $98,084. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,057 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.1B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Manufacturing averages $98,084 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $18,723, a 5.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Chemical Manufacturing concentrates at 31.16x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 11 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 51.6% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: goods manufacturing. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.
• 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 3.2x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 78.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 18.6% of housing units are vacant, above the Tennessee rate of 10.2%, and down from 24.5% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 33.1% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 22.4% of the vacant stock, or 4.2% of all housing units against the 18.6% 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: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $36,289 can pay without cost burden (~$907/mo), and 35.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 54.8% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 8% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Humphreys County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Humphreys County shows strong potential for chemical manufacturing attraction, with a 31.16x concentration and 1,028 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

Most of the employment across the concentrated sub-sectors traces back to a single source of demand. Goods manufacturing accounts for 51.6% of it, with chemical manufacturing the largest single sub-sector at 45.2%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.