Amelia County, Virginia

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $16,453 (17.7%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 17.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 45 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Construction employs 444 workers (36.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $60,845. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 540 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $395M (2024).

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 83.25x 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, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. 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 3.7x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 82.5% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $71,279 can pay without cost burden (~$1,782/mo), and 37.8% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 26.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 57.3% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 2.5% between 2019 and 2024, from 6,587 to 6,425.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Amelia County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Amelia County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 83.25x concentration and 56 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans forestry and logging, wood product manufacturing, and animal production and aquaculture, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 45% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.