Scott 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 $46,821 (50.3%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 13.6% below the national average, so the nominal median of $46,349 is worth $53,645 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at metro level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 20.2%, 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 20.1 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 1,140 workers (48.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $54,439. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,363 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $610M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $81,679 while Retail Trade averages $25,556, a 3.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 4.69x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 4 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 53.7% 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 3.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 77% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 22.5% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and down from 26.7% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 68.5% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 16%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 9.9% of the vacant stock, or 2.2% of all housing units against the 22.5% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $26,786 can pay without cost burden (~$670/mo), and 30.7% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 18.1% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• 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: 44.9% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 7.8% between 2019 and 2024, from 8,806 to 8,118.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Scott County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Scott County shows meaningful potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 4.69x concentration and 134 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.2% 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 53.7% of it, with food and beverage retailers the largest single sub-sector at 35.8%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.