Bedford 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 $14,233 (15.3%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 10.6% below the national average, so the nominal median of $78,937 is worth $88,296 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Aging population: Median age of 47 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 2,536 workers (18.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $36,027. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,140 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $89,116 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $21,582, a 4.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 11.91x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 15 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 61.9% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: resident household spending. Read the count as depth within that single demand base rather than as spread across separate ones.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.8x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 84.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 11.6% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and down from 14.8% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 53.8% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 10.4% of the vacant stock, or 1.2% of all housing units against the 11.6% 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: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $42,487 can pay without cost burden (~$1,062/mo), and 39% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 28.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 57.4% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 0.9% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Bedford County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Bedford County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 11.91x concentration and 64 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 28.2% 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. Resident household spending accounts for 61.9% of it, with general merchandise retailers the largest single sub-sector at 14.1%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.