Warren County, Virginia

• Income near the national median: Median household income tracks the national median, indicating a broad-based consumer market.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $8,488 (9.1%) under the Virginia median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living erodes income: Local prices run 8.9% above the national average, so the nominal median of $84,682 is worth $77,761 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 10.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Retail Trade employs 1,681 workers (16.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $34,137. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,004 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $84,800 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $25,165, a 3.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Support Activities for Transportation concentrates at 3.46x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, but 51.2% 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 4.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 75.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 10.1% of housing units are vacant, above the Virginia rate of 8.7%, and down from 10.6% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 64.8% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 23.2%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 12% of the vacant stock, or 1.2% of all housing units against the 10.1% 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 $53,368 can pay without cost burden (~$1,334/mo), and 37.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 62.4% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Warren County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Warren County shows meaningful potential for support activities for transportation attraction, with a 3.46x concentration and 243 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.3% 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 51.2% of it, with educational services the largest single sub-sector at 27.2%. Recruitment that widens the demand base changes that exposure; recruitment inside the same base deepens it.