Brownsville, TX: 426,120 residents, 128th of 387 US metropolitan areas. It helps to know the ground before spending a marketing dollar; the numbers below are the ground.
The metropolitan statistical area covers Brownsville and Harlingen.
The median home value of $136,500 is 59 percent below the national figure. Money first: median household income in the Brownsville metro is $52,601, 35 percent below the national figure. For a business that sells to homeowners, that combination sets the ceiling on what a job is worth.
Ownership: 65.2% of households own their home, about the same as the US share. The median age is 32.7, 6.2 years below the national median, so this is a younger market than the country as a whole. The unemployment rate stands at 5.9%, about the same as the US share. 22.1% of adults over 25 hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 14 points below the US share.
One more comparison, this time with Texas: median income 33 percent lower than the Texas figure, median home value 52 percent lower than the Texas figure, business density 29 percent thinner than the Texas figure.
By the Census Bureau's count Brownsville, TX supports 6,732 employer establishments. Density runs 15.8 businesses for every 1,000 residents, 37 percent below the national figure. Home-services contractors make up 181 of those establishments, 2.7% of the total, 2 points below the US share.
| Trade | Establishments | Per 100,000 residents | vs US mix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Automobile dealers | 90 | 21.1 | 2.38× |
| Child day care services | 157 | 36.8 | 2.37× |
| Physicians' offices | 339 | 79.6 | 1.93× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 685 | 160.8 | 1.38× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 142 | 33.3 | 1.29× |
| Legal services | 178 | 41.8 | 1.22× |
| General freight trucking | 106 | 24.9 | 1.12× |
| Self-storage facilities | 13 | 3.1 | 0.87× |
| Roofing contractors | 17 | 4 | 0.83× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 71 | 16.7 | 0.79× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 62 | 14.5 | 0.77× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 24 | 5.6 | 0.70× |
| Dentists | 75 | 17.6 | 0.69× |
| Electrical contractors | 38 | 8.9 | 0.57× |
| General automotive repair | 39 | 9.2 | 0.57× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 4 | 0.9 | 0.54× |
| Personal care services (all) | 68 | 16 | 0.53× |
| Beauty salons | 34 | 8 | 0.50× |
| Landscaping services | 27 | 6.3 | 0.28× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 4 | 0.9 | 0.21× |
Index: local share of all establishments divided by the US share; above 1 means the trade is more common here than nationally.
Where competition is thickest: automobile dealers, child day care services, physicians' offices and restaurants all hold a larger share of the local base than they do nationally. Automobile dealers show it most, with 90 establishments, 2.4 times the share nationwide. Where the base is lighter: concrete contractors, landscaping services, beauty salons and personal care services. Concrete contractors are the clearest gap with 4 establishments, about 21% of the share they hold across the US. In line with the country: general freight trucking and self-storage operators.
Three categories dominate by count: restaurants at 685, physicians' offices at 339 and legal services at 178. On a per-capita basis restaurants come first at 160.8 per 100,000, ahead of physicians' offices and legal services. Taken as groups, the strongest relative to the US mix are medical and dental practices (1.4 times the national share) and the weakest are the home-services trades (about 56% of).
automobile dealers, child day care services and physicians' offices face a full field here. Each new review, each answered call and each page that matches a specific search is a small edge, and the edges add up. Scarcity in concrete contractors, landscaping services and beauty salons 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. With a median age 6.2 years below the national median, expect more discovery through maps, short video and AI answers; search alone covers less of the market. With household income 35 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.
What YelloPost runs for businesses in a market shaped like Brownsville, TX.
A clean, fast site with one job: make the call happen.
Paid social that reaches people before they search.
A steady flow of new reviews and a reply on every one of them.
Search advertising that pays for intent, not impressions.
Listing management for the map results that most local searches start and end with.
Organic visibility for the searches that do not need an ad to win.
Brownsville, TX has 426,120 residents (US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimate), ranking 128th of 387 metropolitan areas.
The median household income in Brownsville, TX is $52,601 (ACS 2024 5-year), below the US median of $80,734.
The Census Bureau counts 6,732 employer establishments in Brownsville, TX (County Business Patterns 2023), or 15.8 businesses per 1,000 residents.
The median home value in Brownsville, TX is $136,500, and 65.2% of homes are owner-occupied (ACS 2024 5-year).
Measured against the US business mix (County Business Patterns 2023), automobile dealers, child day care services and physicians' offices have more establishments per resident than the US average; concrete contractors, landscaping services and beauty salons have fewer in Brownsville, TX.
We will look at your Business Profile, your site and your current ads, then say plainly what to fix first.
Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023. Updated 2026-09-29.