Kentucky

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, affecting retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base statewide.
• Elevated poverty: At 16.1%, the rate supports federal funding narratives across distressed counties (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 8.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 289,162 workers (19.2% of the tracked sectors), at an average wage of $65,538.
• Economic scale: State GDP of $295.4B (2024).

• Top specialization: Water Transportation concentrates at 3.60x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy.
• Cluster depth: 10 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base across the state.
• Attraction whitespace: 8 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.2x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 10.3% vacancy rate; potential redevelopment opportunity.

Kentucky shows meaningful potential for water transportation attraction, with a 3.60x concentration and 3,149 jobs in this sub-sector.

Cluster depth across water transportation, primary metal manufacturing, and transportation equipment manufacturing creates supply-chain attraction leverage, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.