Dearborn County, Indiana

• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 10.4 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 42 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 2,486 workers (22.6% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $56,022.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $75,050 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $22,004, a 3.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 15.82x 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.9x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 85.2% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$2,118/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 25.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 59,581 annual credentials.

Dearborn County shows strong potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 15.82x concentration and 500 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 25.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, miscellaneous manufacturing, and accommodation creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.