Keweenaw 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 15.2%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent advantage: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment exceeds the national average by 5.5 pts, supports knowledge-economy and tech attraction.
• Aging population: Median age of 57 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Retail Trade employs 36 workers, at an average wage of $24,977.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $77M (2024).

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 68.32x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• 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.
• High home ownership: 90.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 50.8% 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: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,315/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 32.2% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 46.1% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Short commutes: 21.6-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.

Keweenaw County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 68.32x concentration and 10 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 32.2% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.