By population Bakersfield, CA is 62nd of 387 US metropolitan areas, with 915,075 residents. People, homes, work, and the shape of the local business landscape, drawn from public data.
The metropolitan statistical area covers Bakersfield and Delano.
Money first: median household income in the Bakersfield metro is $70,210, 13 percent below the national figure. Home values tell their own story; here the median is $338,300, in line with the national figure. Read together, they frame the buying power of the market.
Three quick reads on the people of Bakersfield, CA. Residents skew younger than the national median: 32.7 years, 6.2 years below the national median. Ownership: 60.1% of households own their home, 5 points below the US share. The civilian labor force numbers 400,303 people with unemployment at 8.6%, 3 points above the US share. The share of adults with a bachelor's or above is 18.8%, 17 points below the US share.
Compared with California: income is 29 percent lower than the California figure, home values are 54 percent lower than the California figure, and business density is 40 percent thinner than the California figure.
The business base: 14,352 establishments with employees. Set against the population that is 15.7 per 1,000 residents, 37 percent below the national figure, against 25 nationally. Of those, 718 are home-services contractors (plumbing and HVAC, electrical, roofing, concrete, specialty trades and landscaping), a 5% share of the business base, about the same as the US share. The single largest category in the table below is restaurants, with 1,352 locations.
| Trade | Establishments | Per 100,000 residents | vs US mix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 1,352 | 147.7 | 1.27× |
| General freight trucking | 691 | 75.5 | 3.44× |
| Physicians' offices | 515 | 56.3 | 1.38× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 284 | 31 | 1.66× |
| Dentists | 229 | 25 | 0.98× |
| General automotive repair | 223 | 24.4 | 1.53× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 208 | 22.7 | 1.09× |
| Legal services | 202 | 22.1 | 0.65× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 201 | 22 | 0.86× |
| Electrical contractors | 187 | 20.4 | 1.31× |
| Personal care services (all) | 185 | 20.2 | 0.67× |
| Landscaping services | 140 | 15.3 | 0.69× |
| Child day care services | 139 | 15.2 | 0.99× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 84 | 9.2 | 1.14× |
| Automobile dealers | 76 | 8.3 | 0.94× |
| Beauty salons | 66 | 7.2 | 0.46× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 61 | 6.7 | 1.52× |
| Self-storage facilities | 45 | 4.9 | 1.41× |
| Roofing contractors | 38 | 4.2 | 0.87× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 14 | 1.5 | 0.88× |
Ratio above 1.00: the trade holds a bigger share of the local business base than it does nationally; below 1.00, a smaller one.
More common here than nationally: general freight trucking, grocery stores, general automotive repair and concrete contractors. General freight trucking stand out with 691 locations, 3.4 times what the national mix would predict. By contrast beauty salons, legal services, personal care services and landscaping services are comparatively scarce in Bakersfield, CA. Beauty salons are the widest shortfall at 66 establishments, about half of the US share. Close to the national mix: plumbing and HVAC contractors, roofing contractors and specialty trade contractors.
Counted by establishments, the order is restaurants (1,352), general freight trucking (691), physicians' offices (515). On a per-capita basis restaurants come first at 147.7 per 100,000, ahead of general freight trucking and physicians' offices. Across the groups, trucking, storage, real estate and road construction run 2 times the US share and legal services about 65% of.
In general freight trucking, grocery stores and general automotive repair the question is not whether to advertise but how narrowly: the tighter the keywords, the towns and the offer, the less is wasted against the crowd. Scarcity in beauty salons, legal services and personal care services cuts the other way: fewer rivals per search, cheaper clicks, and a chance to become the default answer in the map results with a modest, steady effort. The population is younger than the national median (6.2 years below the national median), which raises the value of Instagram, streaming and AI-answer visibility next to search. A 60.1% ownership rate, under the national share, shifts part of the home-services market to landlords and management companies. With household income 13 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.
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Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023.