Ranked 231st of 387 metropolitan areas in the United States, Auburn, AL counts 199,825 residents. This page lays out the income and housing picture and a trade-by-trade look at the competition.
Its principal cities are Auburn and Opelika.
Home values tell their own story; here the median is $247,500, 26 percent below the national figure. Income in Auburn, AL: a median of $63,649 per household against $80,734 nationally, so 21 percent below the national figure. Read together, they frame the buying power of the market.
The household mix in brief. The unemployment rate stands at 4%, 1 points below the US share. 65.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, about the same as the US share. A four-year degree or more: 40.4%, 5 points above the US share. Residents skew younger than the national median: 34.1 years, 4.8 years below the national median.
Auburn, AL versus Alabama: income about the same as the Alabama figure, home values 18 percent higher than the Alabama figure, business density 14 percent thinner than the Alabama figure.
Start with the count: 3,573 establishments with payroll. Set against the population that is 17.9 per 1,000 residents, 28 percent below the national figure, against 25 nationally. The table breaks out the categories that spend the most on local advertising; restaurants is the biggest of them at 374. 191 of them are home-services contractors, 5.3% of everything, about the same as the US share.
| Category | Locations | Per 100k people | Local ÷ US share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 374 | 187.2 | 1.42× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 78 | 39 | 1.34× |
| Landscaping services | 77 | 38.5 | 1.53× |
| Physicians' offices | 75 | 37.5 | 0.80× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 57 | 28.5 | 1.20× |
| Legal services | 54 | 27 | 0.70× |
| Personal care services (all) | 52 | 26 | 0.76× |
| Dentists | 50 | 25 | 0.86× |
| General freight trucking | 49 | 24.5 | 0.98× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 39 | 19.5 | 0.91× |
| Electrical contractors | 36 | 18 | 1.01× |
| General automotive repair | 35 | 17.5 | 0.97× |
| Child day care services | 34 | 17 | 0.97× |
| Beauty salons | 30 | 15 | 0.83× |
| Automobile dealers | 28 | 14 | 1.39× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 14 | 7 | 0.77× |
| Self-storage facilities | 14 | 7 | 1.76× |
| Roofing contractors | 4 | 2 | 0.37× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 3 | 1.5 | 0.30× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 3 | 1.5 | 0.76× |
The last column divides the local share of establishments by the national share (1.00 = the same mix as the US).
Against the US mix, self-storage operators, landscaping services, restaurants and automobile dealers are over-represented. Self-storage operators lead at 14 establishments, 1.8 times the US share. Thinner than the national mix are concrete contractors, roofing contractors, legal services and road and paving contractors. Concrete contractors are the clearest gap with 3 establishments, about 30% of the share they hold across the US. Roughly where the national mix would put them: electrical contractors, general automotive repair and dentists.
Restaurants (374), real estate lessors (78) and landscaping services (77) are the biggest categories by establishment count. Per resident the densest are restaurants at 187.2 per 100,000 people, then real estate lessors and landscaping services. By sector, trucking, storage, real estate and road construction are the most over-represented at 1.2 times the US share; legal services are the least, at about 70% of.
With self-storage operators, landscaping services and restaurants over-indexed, the cost of a click rises and so does the value of everything that happens after it: a page that loads fast, a number that is answered, a review profile that settles the comparison. Where the base is thin (concrete contractors, roofing contractors and legal services), reach beats refinement: cover the service-plus-place searches across the whole area, because there are few competitors to split them with. Income 21 percent below the national figure puts price front and center; ads that state the offer plainly and make calling easy do best. The population is younger than the national median (4.8 years below the national median), which raises the value of Instagram, streaming and AI-answer visibility next to search.
The services that fit this market, given the numbers above. Each links to the full description.
Replies to reviews, written and posted for the business.
Service and area pages written to answer real questions.
Campaigns on Google fenced to the service area and judged on booked work.
Management of the Google listing that decides the map pack.
Pages that answer the specific services-plus-place searches people in Auburn, AL use, built to be found.
Design and build of a site that turns local traffic into leads.
Auburn, AL has 199,825 residents (US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimate), ranking 231st of 387 metropolitan areas.
The median household income in Auburn, AL is $63,649 (ACS 2024 5-year), below the US median of $80,734.
The Census Bureau counts 3,573 employer establishments in Auburn, AL (County Business Patterns 2023), or 17.9 businesses per 1,000 residents.
The median home value in Auburn, AL is $247,500, and 65.9% of homes are owner-occupied (ACS 2024 5-year).
Measured against the US business mix (County Business Patterns 2023), self-storage operators, landscaping services and restaurants have more establishments per resident than the US average; concrete contractors, roofing contractors and legal services have fewer in Auburn, AL.
One conversation about your trade, your area and your goals; then a written plan.
Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023. Updated 2026-09-29.