Home to 1.18 million people, Birmingham, AL is the 47th-largest of the 387 US metropolitan areas. This page lays out the income and housing picture and a trade-by-trade look at the competition.
Income in Birmingham, AL: a median of $71,498 per household against $80,734 nationally, so 11 percent below the national figure. The median home value of $240,200 is 28 percent below the national figure. Together they say a good deal about the ticket sizes a local business can expect.
A four-year degree or more: 33.7%, 2 points below the US share. Homeownership is 70.8% here, 6 points above the US share; that is the pool of people who hire roofers, plumbers and landscapers rather than calling a landlord. Birmingham, AL has a median age of 38.9 (about the same as the national median). Unemployment 4.5%, about the same as the US share.
Relative to Alabama, household income in Birmingham, AL is 12 percent higher than the Alabama figure, home values are 14 percent higher than the Alabama figure, and businesses per 1,000 residents are 11 percent denser than the Alabama figure.
Start with the count: 27,200 establishments with payroll. Set against the population that is 23 per 1,000 residents, 8 percent below the national figure, against 25 nationally. The single largest category in the table below is restaurants, with 1,969 locations. Contractors in the home-services trades total 1,265, or 4.7% of the base, about the same as the US share.
| Category | Locations | Per 100k people | Local ÷ US share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-storage facilities | 90 | 7.6 | 1.49× |
| Legal services | 746 | 63 | 1.27× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 431 | 36.4 | 1.19× |
| Automobile dealers | 180 | 15.2 | 1.18× |
| Physicians' offices | 775 | 65.4 | 1.09× |
| Electrical contractors | 269 | 22.7 | 0.99× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 1,969 | 166.2 | 0.98× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 28 | 2.4 | 0.93× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 303 | 25.6 | 0.93× |
| Landscaping services | 354 | 29.9 | 0.92× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 408 | 34.4 | 0.92× |
| Dentists | 395 | 33.3 | 0.90× |
| Roofing contractors | 73 | 6.2 | 0.88× |
| General automotive repair | 235 | 19.8 | 0.85× |
| Child day care services | 228 | 19.2 | 0.85× |
| Beauty salons | 231 | 19.5 | 0.84× |
| Personal care services (all) | 409 | 34.5 | 0.78× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 58 | 4.9 | 0.76× |
| General freight trucking | 236 | 19.9 | 0.62× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 80 | 6.8 | 0.58× |
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, legal services, plumbing and HVAC contractors and automobile dealers are over-represented. Self-storage operators show it most, with 90 establishments, 1.5 times the share nationwide. Fewer than the national pattern would suggest: specialty trade contractors, general freight trucking, concrete contractors and personal care services. Specialty trade contractors show the largest gap, 80 locations, about 58% of what the national mix would give. Roofing contractors, electrical contractors and landscaping services track the US share closely.
Relative to population the leaders are restaurants (166.2 per 100,000 residents), physicians' offices and legal services. By raw count the largest categories here are restaurants (1,969), physicians' offices (775) and legal services (746). Grouped, legal services hold 1.3 times the share they hold nationally, while trucking, storage, real estate and road construction sit at about 83% of.
In the crowded trades (self-storage operators, legal services 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. Thin categories such as specialty trade contractors, general freight trucking and concrete contractors are where the market has room. The searches still happen; there are simply fewer businesses answering them, so the first well-presented operator tends to collect the calls. A median age about the same as the national median means a larger share of customers who still start with a Google search and read reviews before calling, so the search-plus-reviews stack earns its keep. With 70.8% 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. With household income 11 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.
Where to start in Birmingham, AL, based on the competition profile above.
Google search ads for the exact services and towns, tracked to the phone call.
The map listing, kept accurate, photographed and posted to every week.
Ranking for the service-and-town searches without paying per click.
A clean, fast site with one job: make the call happen.
Measurement that ties spend to phone calls and form fills.
Calls answered when the crew is on a job or the office is closed.
Birmingham, AL has 1.18 million residents (US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimate), ranking 47th of 387 metropolitan areas.
The median household income in Birmingham, AL is $71,498 (ACS 2024 5-year), below the US median of $80,734.
The Census Bureau counts 27,200 employer establishments in Birmingham, AL (County Business Patterns 2023), or 23 businesses per 1,000 residents.
The median home value in Birmingham, AL is $240,200, and 70.8% of homes are owner-occupied (ACS 2024 5-year).
Measured against the US business mix (County Business Patterns 2023), self-storage operators, legal services and plumbing and HVAC contractors have more establishments per resident than the US average; specialty trade contractors, general freight trucking and concrete contractors have fewer in Birmingham, 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.