Berrien County, Michigan

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 15.1%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Aging population: Median age of 43 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 10,790 workers (24.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $83,731.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $9.7B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Finance and Insurance averages $93,993 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $24,619, a 3.8x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Primary Metal Manufacturing concentrates at 6.46x 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.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.4x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 72.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 17.2% 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.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,636/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 24.7% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Short commutes: 21.2-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 35,780 annual credentials.

Berrien County shows strong potential for primary metal manufacturing attraction, with a 6.46x concentration and 912 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 24.7% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

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