Kidder County, North Dakota

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 9.5 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 48 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Retail Trade employs 76 workers (35.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $34,157.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $189M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $55,795 while Health Care and Social Assistance averages $25,730, a 2.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Crop Production concentrates at 33.71x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.4x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 76.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 29.5% 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 (~$1,640/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 31.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 58.6% labor force participation suggests untapped capacity; workforce development programs may unlock supply.
• Short commutes: 19.8-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 7,742 annual credentials.

Kidder County shows strong potential for crop production attraction, with a 33.71x concentration and 80 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 31.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.