King and Queen County, Virginia

• Elevated poverty: At 17.9%, 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 17.1 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 49 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Construction employs 142 workers (27.3% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $59,719.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $218M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services averages $98,509 while Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting averages $47,022, a 2.1x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Forestry and Logging concentrates at 114.79x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, suggesting an interconnected industrial base rather than reliance on a single employer or sector.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.3x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 75.7% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Elevated vacancy: 14.5% 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.
• Affordable rent tiers: 4 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,762/mo).

• Succession risk is real: 31.8% 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 45,868 annual credentials.

King and Queen County shows strong potential for forestry and logging attraction, with a 114.79x concentration and 39 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 31.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The interconnected base across forestry and logging, heavy and civil engineering construction, and crop production creates supply-chain attraction leverage rather than single-employer risk, a structural advantage for industrial recruitment.