Grand Isle County, Vermont

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 8.3 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 49 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Accommodation and Food Services employs 254 workers (33.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $26,197. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 346 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $265M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $110,557 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $26,197, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 9.04x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 89.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 41% of housing units are vacant, above the Vermont rate of 19.4%, and down from 44.1% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 91.3% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 1.6% of the vacant stock, or 0.7% of all housing units against the 41% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, 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 $50,833 can pay without cost burden (~$1,271/mo), and 41.5% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 23% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 31.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 63.1% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Grand Isle County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Grand Isle County shows strong potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 9.04x concentration and 74 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 31.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.