Franklin 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 $24,321 (26.1%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 6.4% below the national average, so the nominal median of $68,849 is worth $73,557 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 10.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 48 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Manufacturing employs 3,224 workers (27% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $50,604. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,320 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $91,571 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $21,759, a 4.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Wood Product Manufacturing concentrates at 43.14x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 12 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 50.3% of the employment across them depends on one source of demand: goods manufacturing. 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 3.5x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 78.5% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 19% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and down from 23.1% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 60.2% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 4.6% of the vacant stock, or 0.9% of all housing units against the 19% 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: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $51,692 can pay without cost burden (~$1,292/mo), and 25.6% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 29.1% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 54.6% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 3.4% between 2019 and 2024, from 26,188 to 25,307.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Franklin County awards 170 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Franklin County shows strong potential for wood product manufacturing attraction, with a 43.14x concentration and 1,790 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 29.1% 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. Goods manufacturing accounts for 50.3% of it, with wood product manufacturing the largest single sub-sector at 38.2%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.