Lincoln County, Wyoming

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 7.3% below the national average, so the nominal median of $89,330 is worth $96,365 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 9.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 43 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest private-sector industry: Construction employs 997 workers (21.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $57,954. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,057 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $1.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction averages $130,752 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $23,711, a 5.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Oil and Gas Extraction concentrates at 64.71x 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, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.8% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. 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 4.2x 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: 16.5% of housing units are vacant, above the Wyoming rate of 12.2%, and down from 26.7% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 50.9% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 6% of the vacant stock, or 1% of all housing units against the 16.5% 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: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $58,393 can pay without cost burden (~$1,460/mo), and 26.7% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 25.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 64.9% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Talent pipeline: no college, university, or technical school is located in Lincoln County per the IPEDS institutional directory, so any training pipeline serving it runs through institutions outside the county.

Lincoln County shows strong potential for oil and gas extraction attraction, with a 64.71x concentration and 299 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans oil and gas extraction, pipeline transportation, and utilities, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 40.8% of the employment across them, the largest being construction and real estate cycle. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.