Polk County, Florida

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.5%, 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 12.2 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 36,158 workers (17.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $63,975.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $44.3B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $81,166 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $26,678, a 3.0x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Warehousing and Storage concentrates at 6.14x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.
• Attraction whitespace: 8 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.0x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 70.5% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 15.1% vacancy rate. In resort, rural, and seasonal markets much of this is recreational/seasonal (second homes), not available supply; confirm the vacancy-by-reason split before treating it as a redevelopment opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,649/mo).

• Low participation: 59.9% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 56,676 annual credentials.

Polk County shows strong potential for warehousing and storage attraction, with a 6.14x concentration and 19,862 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally.

The interconnected base across warehousing and storage, truck transportation, and wood product manufacturing creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.