Ranked 109th of 387 metropolitan areas in the United States, Huntsville, AL counts 516,951 residents. This page lays out the income and housing picture and a trade-by-trade look at the competition.
This is the Huntsville metropolitan area in Alabama.
The typical household income is $85,989, 7 percent above the national figure. For housing, the median value is $295,200, 11 percent below the national figure. Together they say a good deal about the ticket sizes a local business can expect.
A labor force of 265,527 carries an unemployment rate of 3.5%, 2 points below the US share. Age first: the median is 38.8, about the same as the national median. Bachelor's degree or higher: 42.9% of adults, 7 points above the US share. Owners occupy 70.2% of homes, 5 points above the US share.
One more comparison, this time with Alabama: median income 34 percent higher than the Alabama figure, median home value 41 percent higher than the Alabama figure, business density about the same as the Alabama figure.
There are 10,924 employer businesses in Huntsville, AL. That works out to 21.1 businesses per 1,000 residents, 16 percent below the national figure (the national rate is 25 per 1,000). Home-services trades account for 515 of them (4.7% of all establishments, about the same as the US share).
| Trade (NAICS) | Count | Per 100,000 | Index vs US |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 27 | 5.2 | 0.48× |
| General freight trucking | 79 | 15.3 | 0.52× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 85 | 16.4 | 0.65× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 8 | 1.5 | 0.66× |
| General automotive repair | 86 | 16.6 | 0.78× |
| Personal care services (all) | 173 | 33.5 | 0.82× |
| Electrical contractors | 92 | 17.8 | 0.84× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 28 | 5.4 | 0.92× |
| Beauty salons | 101 | 19.5 | 0.92× |
| Legal services | 221 | 42.8 | 0.93× |
| Child day care services | 103 | 19.9 | 0.96× |
| Dentists | 174 | 33.7 | 0.98× |
| Roofing contractors | 34 | 6.6 | 1.02× |
| Landscaping services | 163 | 31.5 | 1.06× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 858 | 166 | 1.06× |
| Automobile dealers | 69 | 13.3 | 1.12× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 200 | 38.7 | 1.12× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 171 | 33.1 | 1.18× |
| Physicians' offices | 370 | 71.6 | 1.30× |
| Self-storage facilities | 42 | 8.1 | 1.73× |
Reading the index: 1.00 matches the national mix, 1.50 means half again as common here, 0.50 half as common.
Some trades are heavier here than in the country at large: self-storage operators, physicians' offices and plumbing and HVAC contractors. The sharpest example is self-storage operators: 42 establishments, 1.7 times the share seen nationally. Thinner than the national mix are specialty trade contractors, general freight trucking, grocery stores and road and paving contractors. Specialty trade contractors are the widest shortfall at 27 establishments, about half of the US share. Roofing contractors, concrete contractors and landscaping services sit near their national proportions.
Adjusted for population, restaurants are the thickest on the ground (166 per 100,000), with physicians' offices and legal services next. By raw count the largest categories here are restaurants (858), physicians' offices (370) and legal services (221). Sector view: medical and dental practices index at 1.2 times the national share, trucking, storage, real estate and road construction at about the same as.
With self-storage operators, physicians' offices and plumbing and HVAC contractors over-indexed, the cost of a click rises and so does the value of everything that happens after it: a page that loads fast, a number that is answered, a review profile that settles the comparison. Scarcity in specialty trade contractors, general freight trucking and grocery stores 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 70.2% 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. Younger residents (median age about the same as the national median) split their attention between search, social feeds and AI assistants, so the presence has to be in all three.
The services that fit this market, given the numbers above. Each links to the full description.
A website that loads fast, states the offer and gets the visitor to the phone.
Service and area pages written to answer real questions.
Visibility inside AI answers, not just search results.
Google search ads for the exact services and towns, tracked to the phone call.
Profile upkeep, posts, Q&A and photos on the listing customers see first.
Pages that answer the specific services-plus-place searches people in Huntsville, AL use, built to be found.
Huntsville, AL has 516,951 residents (US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimate), ranking 109th of 387 metropolitan areas.
The median household income in Huntsville, AL is $85,989 (ACS 2024 5-year), above the US median of $80,734.
The Census Bureau counts 10,924 employer establishments in Huntsville, AL (County Business Patterns 2023), or 21.1 businesses per 1,000 residents.
The median home value in Huntsville, AL is $295,200, and 70.2% of homes are owner-occupied (ACS 2024 5-year).
Measured against the US business mix (County Business Patterns 2023), self-storage operators, physicians' offices and plumbing and HVAC contractors have more establishments per resident than the US average; specialty trade contractors, general freight trucking and grocery stores have fewer in Huntsville, AL.
A quick review of where you show up today, then a plan for where you should.
Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023. Updated 2026-09-29.