Lake 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 $40,781 (58.6%) 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 $28,814 is worth $31,354 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 32.2%, 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 26.3 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: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 172 workers (42.4% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $43,650. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 799 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $151M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $94,990 while Retail Trade averages $32,769, a 2.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 4.46x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Renter-majority market: 47.8% owner-occupied; flexible labor mobility but consider home-buying pipeline if attracting families.
• Elevated vacancy: 17.1% of housing units are vacant, above the Tennessee rate of 10.2%, and up from 14% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 43.3% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 22.7%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 27.6% of the vacant stock, or 4.7% of all housing units against the 17.1% 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 $15,833 can pay without cost burden (~$396/mo), and 29.3% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 18.7% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Low participation: 30.6% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 12.4% between 2019 and 2024, from 1,986 to 1,739.
• Short commutes: 21.2-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Lake County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Lake County shows meaningful potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 4.46x concentration and 23 jobs in this sub-sector.