Lincoln 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 9.8 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 sector: Wholesale Trade employs 92 workers (47.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $44,689.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $148M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $69,774 while Retail Trade averages $20,100, a 3.5x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 16.01x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 1.7x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 80.4% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 23.4% 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.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,438/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 27.8% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Short commutes: 19.0-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 6 regional institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 17,685 annual credentials.

Lincoln County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 16.01x concentration and 24 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.