McCulloch County, Texas

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Elevated poverty: At 15.3%, 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 11.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 44 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Retail Trade employs 372 workers (29.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $33,961.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $440M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction averages $76,363 while Other Services (except Public Administration) averages $29,313, a 2.6x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Mining (except Oil and Gas) concentrates at 47.99x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 5 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.8x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• Elevated vacancy: 21.9% 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.
• Affordable rent tiers: 3 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,351/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 27.3% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Short commutes: 20.8-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 48,998 annual credentials.

McCulloch County shows strong potential for mining (except oil and gas) attraction, with a 47.99x concentration and 128 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 27.3% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across mining (except oil and gas), animal production and aquaculture, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.