Cumberland County, Maine

• Income premium: Households earn well above the national median, supporting strong retail and housing markets.
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 17.3 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• 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 39,653 workers (27.8% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $73,692.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $34.6B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $133,370 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $35,708, a 3.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Fishing, Hunting and Trapping concentrates at 5.58x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.
• Attraction whitespace: 7 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 4.7x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 13.8% 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 (~$2,392/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 22.7% 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 5,859 annual credentials.

Cumberland County shows strong potential for fishing, hunting and trapping attraction, with a 5.58x concentration and 52 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across fishing, hunting and trapping, scenic and sightseeing transportation, and management of companies and enterprises creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.