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Economic Atlas
Places/NC/Watauga
County profile

Watauga

United States · GDP 2024
#935 of 3,127 US counties by GDP48th-percentile growthmore diversified than 37% of counties
EA Place Score
——
methodology in progress
GDP 2024 (USD)
$3.2B
GDP growth
+4.3%
Jobs tracked
20,781
Employers
1,740
Avg. wage
$45.9k
Population
54,786
Labor & formation
Unemployment
3.2%
Median HH income
$51.7k±$3.3k
Business applications
618 · 2025

Public companies headquartered here

SEC EDGAR · FMP
CompanySectorRevenueEA

No public companies loaded for this state yet — universe expands with the full ingest.

HQ-based placement with total (global) headcount — local employment attribution needs firmographic data; the industry mix at right is measured county data (CBP).

Industry mix · employment
Health care31%
Food & accommodation27%
Retail trade25%
Construction7%
Other services6%
Arts & recreation5%
share of top-6 sector employment · CBP 2023
Population & migration
Census PEP · 2020–2025
54,786
residents · 2025 · +0.6% since 2020
Income per capita $56.4k · BEA 2024
COMPONENTS OF CHANGE · 2021–2025
Domestic migration+445
International migration+470
Natural change−528

GDP trend

2019–2024 · nominal
$2.4B
2019
$2.4B
2020
$2.6B
2021
$2.8B
2022
$3.1B
2023
$3.2B
2024

Real estate & risk

FHFA · ACS · FEMA
Median home value
$358.9k±$18.3k
Median gross rent
$1.1k/mo±$85/mo
Vacancy rate
36.4%±1.8%
Affordability
7.8× wages
Residential permits
536 (9.8/1k pop)
FEMA risk score
71.9
HUD Fair Market Rent (2BR):$1.2k/mo · 2026
TOP PERILS · FEMA NRI
Landslide 99Ice storm 82Cold wave 82
FHFA HOUSE PRICE INDEX · 2016–2025
208
2016
216
2017
222
2018
241
2019
249
2020
290
2021
358
2022
406
2023
436
2024
449
2025

Transport access

BTS · FAA · USACE
Nearest interstate
56.1 km
I-26
Nearest freight rail
34.3 km
CWCY
Nearest port
195.2 km
Burkhart Enterprises, Forks-of-the-River Slip.
Nearest commercial airport
61.0 km
HICKORY RGNL
Wage trend
BLS QCEW · 2019–2023
$45.9k
avg. annual pay · +23% since 2019
Similar US counties
nearest by GDP
Kerr$3.2BIron$3.2BWarrick$3.2BSt. Landry$3.2BFord$3.2BClinton$3.2B
The read

Watauga's economy produced $3.2B in 2024, growing 4.3% year over year — about the middle of the pack among US counties. Its largest employment sector is health care.

GDP: BEA (2024), USD-normalized · Jobs/employers/wages & industry mix: Census CBP (2023) · Population & migration: Census PEP · Income: BEA CAINC1 · Companies: SEC EDGAR + FMP, by HQ.
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