With 5.09 million residents, Alabama ranks 24th among the 51 states (with the District of Columbia). Households, home values, education, business density, and which trades are already crowded, all from Census data.
Statewide numbers first; the 12 metro pages linked below carry the same breakdown for each market. The biggest of them, Birmingham, AL, holds 1.18 million residents.
Money first: median household income in Alabama is $63,999, 21 percent below the national figure. For housing, the median value is $209,900, 37 percent below the national figure.
Among adults 25 and over, 28.4% have at least a bachelor's degree, 7 points below the US share. The median age is 39.3, about the same as the national median, so this is a older market than the country as a whole. Homeownership stands at 70.2%, 5 points above the US share. The unemployment rate stands at 4.7%, about the same as the US share.
How does that compare with its largest metro? Income in Alabama is 10 percent lower than the Birmingham metro figure, the median home value is 13 percent lower than the Birmingham metro figure, and business density is 10 percent thinner than the Birmingham metro figure; the full numbers are on the Birmingham, AL page.
The business base: 105,720 establishments with employees. Per 1,000 people that is 20.8, 17 percent below the national figure. The table breaks out the categories that spend the most on local advertising; restaurants is the biggest of them at 8,126. Contractors in the home-services trades total 4,928, or 4.7% of the base, about the same as the US share.
| Trade (NAICS) | Count | Per 100,000 | Index vs US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal care services (all) | 1,386 | 27.2 | 0.68× |
| Beauty salons | 740 | 14.5 | 0.70× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 388 | 7.6 | 0.72× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 216 | 4.2 | 0.73× |
| Dentists | 1,402 | 27.6 | 0.82× |
| General freight trucking | 1,262 | 24.8 | 0.85× |
| General automotive repair | 941 | 18.5 | 0.88× |
| Landscaping services | 1,359 | 26.7 | 0.91× |
| Roofing contractors | 305 | 6 | 0.95× |
| Child day care services | 988 | 19.4 | 0.95× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 1,205 | 23.7 | 0.95× |
| Electrical contractors | 1,013 | 19.9 | 0.96× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 1,684 | 33.1 | 0.98× |
| Physicians' offices | 2,783 | 54.7 | 1.01× |
| Legal services | 2,374 | 46.7 | 1.04× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 8,126 | 159.7 | 1.04× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 135 | 2.7 | 1.15× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 1,647 | 32.4 | 1.17× |
| Self-storage facilities | 328 | 6.4 | 1.40× |
| Automobile dealers | 854 | 16.8 | 1.44× |
The last column divides the local share of establishments by the national share (1.00 = the same mix as the US).
More common here than nationally: automobile dealers, self-storage operators, plumbing and HVAC contractors and road and paving contractors. The sharpest example is automobile dealers: 854 establishments, 1.4 times the share seen nationally. Fewer than the national pattern would suggest: personal care services, beauty salons, specialty trade contractors and concrete contractors. Personal care services are the thinnest at 1,386, about 68% of the national share. In line with the country: roofing contractors, electrical contractors and landscaping services.
Counted by establishments, the order is restaurants (8,126), physicians' offices (2,783), legal services (2,374). On a per-capita basis restaurants come first at 159.7 per 100,000, ahead of physicians' offices and legal services. By sector, automotive businesses are the most over-represented at about the same as the US share; medical and dental practices are the least, at about the same as.
In the crowded trades (automobile dealers, self-storage operators and plumbing and HVAC contractors) the map pack decides more calls than the ads do. Business Profile completeness, review volume and review recency become the separating factors, and paid search has to be tight rather than broad. For personal care services, beauty salons and specialty trade contractors the picture is the opposite. Fewer competing profiles means a complete listing, a fast site and a modest search budget can take a disproportionate share of the searches that exist. With 70.2% of homes owner-occupied, the people searching for a plumber or a roofer here are usually the ones paying the bill, which shortens the sales cycle. An older-than-average market (median age about the same as the national median) responds to search results, review counts and a phone number that is answered; it is less swayed by feed advertising. With household income 21 percent below the national figure, price transparency and financing matter more in the ad copy, and a phone call is usually the conversion to optimize for.
Matched to the data: the services most likely to earn their cost in Alabama.
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Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023.