Lane County, Kansas

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 11.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 50 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Wholesale Trade employs 63 workers, at an average wage of $64,205.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $174M (2024).

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 17.12x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 3 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.3x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 88.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 19.2% 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: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,363/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 34.2% 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 17,685 annual credentials.

Lane County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 17.12x concentration and 34 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 34.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across crop production, merchant wholesalers, nondurable goods, and creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.