A market of 816,080 residents, ranked 74th among the 387 metropolitan areas in the country. A count of the local trades and a read on where advertising is contested and where it is open.
Its principal cities are Dayton, Kettering and Beavercreek.
The median household in Dayton, OH earns $71,739 a year, 11 percent below the national figure (the US median is $80,734). Home values tell their own story; here the median is $201,100, 40 percent below the national figure. Together they say a good deal about the ticket sizes a local business can expect.
Unemployment in the civilian labor force is 5.1%, about the same as the US share. 32.8% of adults over 25 hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 3 points below the US share. 65% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, about the same as the US share. The median resident is 39.1 years old, about the same as the national median.
Compared with Ohio: income is about the same as the Ohio figure, home values are 6 percent lower than the Ohio figure, and business density is 7 percent thinner than the Ohio figure.
County Business Patterns counts 16,372 employer establishments in Dayton, OH. Set against the population that is 20.1 per 1,000 residents, 20 percent below the national figure, against 25 nationally. Contractors in the home-services trades total 768, or 4.7% of the base, about the same as the US share.
| Business type | Establishments | Per 100k residents | Share ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants and other eating places | 1,414 | 173.3 | 1.17× |
| Physicians' offices | 535 | 65.6 | 1.25× |
| Personal care services (all) | 307 | 37.6 | 0.98× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 259 | 31.7 | 0.97× |
| Legal services | 255 | 31.2 | 0.72× |
| Landscaping services | 250 | 30.6 | 1.08× |
| Dentists | 242 | 29.7 | 0.91× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 224 | 27.4 | 1.03× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 214 | 26.2 | 1.09× |
| Child day care services | 196 | 24 | 1.22× |
| General automotive repair | 193 | 23.6 | 1.16× |
| Beauty salons | 172 | 21.1 | 1.04× |
| General freight trucking | 169 | 20.7 | 0.74× |
| Electrical contractors | 126 | 15.4 | 0.77× |
| Automobile dealers | 113 | 13.8 | 1.23× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 67 | 8.2 | 0.80× |
| Roofing contractors | 57 | 7 | 1.14× |
| Self-storage facilities | 52 | 6.4 | 1.43× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 44 | 5.4 | 0.96× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 12 | 1.5 | 0.66× |
The last column divides the local share of establishments by the national share (1.00 = the same mix as the US).
Some trades are heavier here than in the country at large: self-storage operators, physicians' offices, automobile dealers and child day care services. Self-storage operators are the widest gap, 52 of them, 1.4 times the national share. Where the base is lighter: road and paving contractors, legal services, general freight trucking and electrical contractors. Road and paving contractors number just 12, about 66% of the US share, which is room for a well-run operator to be the obvious choice. In line with the country: plumbing and HVAC contractors, roofing contractors and concrete contractors.
Per 100,000 residents: restaurants 173.3, followed by physicians' offices and personal care services. The most numerous of the listed trades: restaurants with 1,414 establishments, then physicians' offices (535) and personal care services (307). Sector view: automotive businesses index at 1.2 times the national share, legal services at about 72% of.
self-storage operators, physicians' offices and automobile dealers 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. With road and paving contractors, legal services and general freight trucking in short supply, the map pack often has room; a complete listing and a handful of recent reviews can put a business in it. 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 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.
Services for a business advertising in Dayton, OH, picked from the full list.
Site structure, pages and citations that earn organic placement in Dayton, OH.
A site built to convert a local search into a phone call or a form.
Calls answered when the crew is on a job or the office is closed.
A steady flow of new reviews and a reply on every one of them.
Search advertising that pays for intent, not impressions.
Management of the Google listing that decides the map pack.
The audit is free and specific: your listing, your site, your tracking, and what to do first.
Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023.