Stephenson County, Illinois

• 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 15.0 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Aging population: Median age of 45 is materially above the U.S. norm; succession planning and senior-services demand are real factors.

• Largest sector: Manufacturing employs 3,278 workers (24.1% of the top displayed sectors), at an average wage of $67,497.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.5B (2024) with per-capita income of $57,610.
• Wage stratification: Construction averages $100,417 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,641, a 4.9x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Animal Production and Aquaculture concentrates at 13.06x 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: 6 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• Affordable market: Home value to income ratio of 2.1x is well below the ~4.1x national average; supports talent attraction and family settlement narratives.
• High home ownership: 70.9% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Broadly affordable rents: All 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom tiers sit below the 30%-of-median-income affordability threshold (~$1,601/mo), a clear cost-of-living advantage for workforce attraction.

• Succession risk is real: 26.8% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Strong participation: 90.9% labor force participation among working-age residents indicates an engaged, available workforce.
• Short commutes: 20.7-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 6 local institutions feed the workforce; the top three combined produce 37,237 annual credentials.

Stephenson County shows strong potential for animal production and aquaculture attraction, with a 13.06x concentration and 391 jobs in this sub-sector, it ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 26.8% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

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

Community Data Widgets
That Actually Impress

Embed premium dashboards that make site selectors stop scrolling. 20+ federal sources. Dark, light, and brand themes. One script tag. Included with CRM or standalone.