Carroll 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 $38,686 (41.5%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Elevated poverty: At 15.3%, 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 18.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• 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: Retail Trade employs 767 workers (33.1% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $31,200. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,383 and is counted separately.
• Wage stratification: Information averages $131,304 while Retail Trade averages $31,200, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 8.71x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 6 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.4% 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 77.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 24.7% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and down from 26.2% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 40.8% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 3.4% of the vacant stock, or 0.9% of all housing units against the 24.7% 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 $32,324 can pay without cost burden (~$808/mo), and 26.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 28.6% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 53.3% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 1.7% between 2019 and 2024, from 13,381 to 13,158.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Carroll County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Carroll County shows strong potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 8.71x concentration and 116 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 28.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans wood product manufacturing, gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and building material and garden supply retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 49.4% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.