Sheridan County, Wyoming

• 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 $4,788 (6.3%) under the Wyoming median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 7.3% below the national average, so the nominal median of $71,388 is worth $77,010 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• 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: Retail Trade employs 1,739 workers (18.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $38,955. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 3,686 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $93,564 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $24,678, a 3.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 8.19x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 15 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• Stretched market: Home value to income ratio of 5.5x is well above the ~4.1x national average; attainable workforce housing may be a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 70.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 10.5% of housing units are vacant, below the Wyoming rate of 12.2%, and down from 11.2% in 2019.
• Mostly second homes: seasonal, recreational and occasional-use units are 78.7% of vacant units, so the headline rate is not available supply.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 8.1% of the vacant stock, or 0.9% of all housing units against the 10.5% 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: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $40,339 can pay without cost burden (~$1,008/mo), and 42.5% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 24.1% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 62.8% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 15.8-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in Sheridan County awards 672 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Sheridan County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 8.19x concentration and 177 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.1% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans animal production and aquaculture, construction of buildings, and building material and garden supply retailers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 33.9% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.