Duplin County, North Carolina

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 20.5%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 18.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 6,952 workers (49.5% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $50,243.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.9B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Wholesale Trade averages $65,158 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $19,237, a 3.4x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Food Manufacturing concentrates at 26.60x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 8 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.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.5x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 70.3% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 12.9% 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 (~$1,379/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 23.6% 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 28,942 annual credentials.

Duplin County shows strong potential for food manufacturing attraction, with a 26.60x concentration and 5,951 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 23.6% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across food manufacturing, animal production and aquaculture, and forestry and logging creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.