One Okaloosa Economic Development Council (EDC) is Okaloosa County’s primary organization tasked with improving the area’s economy through the attraction and retention of new, diversified employment opportunities and capital investments. One Okaloosa EDC’s investors include Okaloosa County and its municipalities, regional education partners, utility companies, non-profit organizations, and more than 150 private companies committed to economic growth and diversification. They were constituted in 1989, and serve as a non-profit public/private partnership.

Military activity in Okaloosa County, and Florida as a whole, has long been a major contributor to the economy.  Okaloosa hosts the largest military installation in the Department of Defense; Eglin Air Force Base.  The military installations in the county are the #1 economic engine and generate additional employment by attracting defense contracting firms to the area.  The defense-related spending in the County creates employment and investments and continues to multiply as it circulates throughout the region’s economy.