Baltimore, MD has 2.85 million residents and sits 20th among the 387 US metropolitan areas by population. A count of the local trades and a read on where advertising is contested and where it is open.
The metropolitan statistical area covers Baltimore, Columbia and Towson.
Household income runs $99,470 here, which is 23 percent above the national figure. The median home is worth $391,300, 18 percent above the national figure, which shapes what homeowners will spend on repairs and upgrades.
The unemployment rate stands at 4.6%, about the same as the US share. Education: 44% with a bachelor's or higher, 8 points above the US share. Ownership: 66.9% of households own their home, 2 points above the US share. Median age 39, about the same as the national median.
Set against the state as a whole (Maryland), household income here is 4 percent lower than the Maryland figure, the median home value is 7 percent lower than the Maryland figure, and the business base per resident is 5 percent denser than the Maryland figure.
The business base: 68,827 establishments with employees. Relative to population, 24.2 per 1,000 residents, 3 percent below the national figure. 3,503 of them are home-services contractors, 5.1% of everything, about the same as the US share.
| Business type | Establishments | Per 100k residents | Share ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 540 | 19 | 1.53× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 1,050 | 36.8 | 1.28× |
| General automotive repair | 762 | 26.7 | 1.09× |
| Legal services | 1,606 | 56.4 | 1.08× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 982 | 34.5 | 1.07× |
| Beauty salons | 720 | 25.3 | 1.04× |
| Electrical contractors | 710 | 24.9 | 1.03× |
| Child day care services | 680 | 23.9 | 1.01× |
| Self-storage facilities | 155 | 5.4 | 1.01× |
| Physicians' offices | 1,800 | 63.2 | 1.00× |
| Landscaping services | 966 | 33.9 | 0.99× |
| Dentists | 1,102 | 38.7 | 0.99× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 5,047 | 177.1 | 0.99× |
| Personal care services (all) | 1,308 | 45.9 | 0.99× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 64 | 2.2 | 0.84× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 934 | 32.8 | 0.83× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 149 | 5.2 | 0.78× |
| Roofing contractors | 156 | 5.5 | 0.74× |
| Automobile dealers | 287 | 10.1 | 0.74× |
| General freight trucking | 658 | 23.1 | 0.68× |
The last column divides the local share of establishments by the national share (1.00 = the same mix as the US).
Relative to the national mix, specialty trade contractors and grocery stores take up an outsized slice of the Baltimore, MD business base. Specialty trade contractors stand out with 540 locations, 1.5 times what the national mix would predict. Thinner than the national mix are general freight trucking, roofing contractors, automobile dealers and concrete contractors. General freight trucking are the thinnest at 658, about 68% of the national share. Close to the national mix: plumbing and HVAC contractors, electrical contractors and landscaping services.
Counted by establishments, the order is restaurants (5,047), physicians' offices (1,800), legal services (1,606). Adjusted for population, restaurants are the thickest on the ground (177.1 per 100,000), with physicians' offices and legal services next. Across the groups, legal services run about the same as the US share and trucking, storage, real estate and road construction about 78% of.
Advertisers in specialty trade contractors and grocery stores should assume high competition on Google Ads and put equal weight on the free real estate: an accurate Business Profile, steady new reviews, and pages that match the local searches word for word. With general freight trucking, roofing contractors and automobile dealers in short supply, the map pack often has room; a complete listing and a handful of recent reviews can put a business in it. With income 23 percent above the national figure, the message can lead on quality, warranty and speed rather than the lowest price. Residents here are older than the US median (about the same as the national median); they search, read reviews and call, which puts the weight on search, the listing and the phone.
Matched to the data: the services most likely to earn their cost in Baltimore, MD.
Search optimization aimed at the local queries that produce calls.
A website that loads fast, states the offer and gets the visitor to the phone.
Follow-up sequences that turn past customers into repeat ones.
YouTube campaigns fenced to the market.
Search campaigns built around the searches people in Baltimore, MD actually type, with the geography fenced to where the work is.
Management of the Google listing that decides the map pack.
A short call, a free audit of your current listing and site, and a plan built on what actually competes in this market.
Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023.