Brunswick County, Virginia

• 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 $40,086 (43.0%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.9%, 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 19.1 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: Manufacturing employs 261 workers (21.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $59,170. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,172 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $116,765 while Retail Trade averages $29,220, a 4.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 277.69x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 30.1% of the employment across them, the largest being resource and agricultural commodities. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.7x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 74.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 18.6% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and down from 26.7% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 44.5% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 5.5% of the vacant stock, or 1% of all housing units against the 18.6% 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 $33,655 can pay without cost burden (~$841/mo), and 37% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.1% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 51.7% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 6% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Brunswick County awards 952 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Brunswick County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 277.69x concentration and 214 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.1% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans forestry and logging, wood product manufacturing, and waste management and remediation services, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 30.1% of the employment across them, the largest being resource and agricultural commodities. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.