Sanpete County, Utah

• 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 $25,083 (26.4%) under the Utah median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Elevated poverty: At 15.2%, 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 12.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 34 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 1,568 workers (31% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $52,727. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,179 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.5B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $62,348 while Retail Trade averages $29,216, a 2.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 14.92x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 14 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 31% 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 5.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 74.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 16% of housing units are vacant, above the Utah rate of 8.1%, and down from 19.7% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 62.7% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 10.7% of the vacant stock, or 1.7% of all housing units against the 16% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $47,869 can pay without cost burden (~$1,197/mo), and 32.8% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Low participation: 56.4% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 5.4% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Short commutes: 21.4-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Sanpete County awards 1,384 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Sanpete County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 14.92x concentration and 192 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 miscellaneous manufacturing, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 31% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.