By population Knoxville, TN is 60th of 387 US metropolitan areas, with 932,241 residents. Below: who lives here, which trades are crowded, and where a local advertiser can gain ground.
This is the Knoxville metropolitan area in Tennessee.
Income in Knoxville, TN: a median of $72,422 per household against $80,734 nationally, so 10 percent below the national figure. The median home value of $290,200 is 13 percent below the national figure. Both figures matter for pricing and for which offers land.
Who lives here matters as much as how many. The median age is 40.6, 1.7 years above the national median, so this is a older market than the country as a whole. Among adults 25 and over, 32.7% have at least a bachelor's degree, 3 points below the US share. A labor force of 465,170 carries an unemployment rate of 3.7%, 2 points below the US share. Homeownership is 70.4% here, 5 points above the US share; that is the pool of people who hire roofers, plumbers and landscapers rather than calling a landlord.
Relative to Tennessee, household income in Knoxville, TN is 4 percent higher than the Tennessee figure, home values are about the same as the Tennessee figure, and businesses per 1,000 residents are about the same as the Tennessee figure.
19,652 businesses with employees operate in Knoxville, TN. Set against the population that is 21.1 per 1,000 residents, 16 percent below the national figure, against 25 nationally. Contractors in the home-services trades total 945, or 4.8% of the base, about the same as the US share. The table breaks out the categories that spend the most on local advertising; restaurants is the biggest of them at 1,511.
| Trade | Establishments | Per 100,000 residents | vs US mix |
|---|---|---|---|
| General freight trucking | 185 | 19.8 | 0.67× |
| Child day care services | 138 | 14.8 | 0.71× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 76 | 8.2 | 0.76× |
| Beauty salons | 150 | 16.1 | 0.76× |
| Personal care services (all) | 314 | 33.7 | 0.83× |
| Legal services | 363 | 38.9 | 0.85× |
| Electrical contractors | 174 | 18.7 | 0.89× |
| Roofing contractors | 55 | 5.9 | 0.92× |
| General automotive repair | 188 | 20.2 | 0.94× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 221 | 23.7 | 0.94× |
| Dentists | 304 | 32.6 | 0.95× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 53 | 5.7 | 0.97× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 1,511 | 162.1 | 1.04× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 275 | 29.5 | 1.05× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 360 | 38.6 | 1.12× |
| Landscaping services | 312 | 33.5 | 1.13× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 26 | 2.8 | 1.20× |
| Physicians' offices | 616 | 66.1 | 1.20× |
| Automobile dealers | 144 | 15.4 | 1.30× |
| Self-storage facilities | 76 | 8.2 | 1.74× |
The last column divides the local share of establishments by the national share (1.00 = the same mix as the US).
More common here than nationally: self-storage operators, automobile dealers, road and paving contractors and physicians' offices. Self-storage operators are the widest gap, 76 of them, 1.7 times the national share. Less common here than nationally: general freight trucking, child day care services, specialty trade contractors and beauty salons. General freight trucking are the widest shortfall at 185 establishments, about 67% of the US share. Neither crowded nor thin: plumbing and HVAC contractors, roofing contractors and electrical contractors.
Scaled to residents, restaurants run 162.1 per 100,000, more than physicians' offices or legal services. By raw count the largest categories here are restaurants (1,511), physicians' offices (616) and legal services (363). The group picture: medical and dental practices above the national pattern at about the same as, legal services below it at about 85% of.
A crowded category like self-storage operators, automobile dealers and road and paving contractors rewards precision: exact-match search terms, service-area fencing, Local Services Ads where the trade is eligible, and a Business Profile that is answered daily. Broad campaigns get outspent. In general freight trucking, child day care services and specialty trade contractors, the shortage of local establishments is an opening: the searches are there, the competition for them is not, and a listing that ranks plus a page that converts can own the category quickly. A median age 1.7 years above 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. High homeownership (70.4%) means a large pool of people who pay for their own repairs, replacements and yard work, which favors the home-services trades in this market. With household income 10 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.
A short list of services chosen for this market; the full range is on the services page.
Site structure, pages and citations that earn organic placement in Knoxville, TN.
A site built to convert a local search into a phone call or a form.
Email automation for the customer list.
Replies to reviews, written and posted for the business.
Google search ads for the exact services and towns, tracked to the phone call.
Listing management for the map results that most local searches start and end with.
Tell us the trade and the area; we will show you what the competition looks like and what it takes to be found.
Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023.