Southampton 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 $22,375 (24.0%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 15.6 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• 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: Manufacturing employs 366 workers (25.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $70,984. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 1,462 and is counted separately.
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $73,472 while Retail Trade averages $27,893, a 2.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 72.69x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.3% of the employment across them, the largest being freight and distribution. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• 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: 76.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 12.1% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and down from 14% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 73.1% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 8.6%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 13.4% of the vacant stock, or 1.6% of all housing units against the 12.1% 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 $43,914 can pay without cost burden (~$1,098/mo), and 33.8% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 27.8% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 55.9% labor force participation against a labor force that grew 4.8% between 2019 and 2024, so workforce development programs may unlock additional supply.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Southampton County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Southampton County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 72.69x concentration and 55 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans forestry and logging, wood product manufacturing, and merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 39.3% of the employment across them, the largest being freight and distribution. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.