Home to 1.37 million people, Louisville, KY is the 43rd-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.
This is the Louisville/Jefferson County metropolitan area in Kentucky.
Income in Louisville, KY: a median of $73,863 per household against $80,734 nationally, so 9 percent below the national figure. Housing: a median home value of $248,700, 25 percent below the national figure.
A labor force of 711,106 carries an unemployment rate of 4.7%, about the same as the US share. 32.9% of adults finished a four-year degree or more (3 points below the US share). Homeownership is 68.9% here, 4 points above the US share; that is the pool of people who hire roofers, plumbers and landscapers rather than calling a landlord. Median age 39.4, 0.5 years above the national median.
One more comparison, this time with Kentucky: median income 16 percent higher than the Kentucky figure, median home value 21 percent higher than the Kentucky figure, business density 11 percent denser than the Kentucky figure.
31,628 businesses with employees operate in Louisville, KY. Business density is a first proxy for competition: 23 per 1,000 residents, 8 percent below the national figure. Home-services trades account for 1,570 of them (5% of all establishments, about the same as the US share).
| Category | Locations | Per 100k people | Local ÷ US share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 275 | 20 | 0.73× |
| General freight trucking | 351 | 25.6 | 0.79× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 29 | 2.1 | 0.83× |
| Personal care services (all) | 518 | 37.7 | 0.85× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 142 | 10.3 | 0.88× |
| Electrical contractors | 291 | 21.2 | 0.92× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 2,233 | 162.7 | 0.95× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 493 | 35.9 | 0.95× |
| Dentists | 502 | 36.6 | 0.98× |
| Legal services | 672 | 49 | 0.98× |
| Child day care services | 305 | 22.2 | 0.98× |
| Beauty salons | 312 | 22.7 | 0.98× |
| General automotive repair | 317 | 23.1 | 0.99× |
| Landscaping services | 471 | 34.3 | 1.06× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 449 | 32.7 | 1.07× |
| Roofing contractors | 105 | 7.6 | 1.09× |
| Automobile dealers | 204 | 14.9 | 1.15× |
| Self-storage facilities | 84 | 6.1 | 1.20× |
| Physicians' offices | 1,027 | 74.8 | 1.25× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 112 | 8.2 | 1.27× |
Index: local share of all establishments divided by the US share; above 1 means the trade is more common here than nationally.
Relative to the national mix, concrete contractors, physicians' offices, self-storage operators and automobile dealers take up an outsized slice of the Louisville, KY business base. Concrete contractors stand out with 112 locations, 1.3 times what the national mix would predict. Thinner than the national mix are grocery stores, general freight trucking, road and paving contractors and personal care services. Grocery stores show the largest gap, 275 locations, about 73% of what the national mix would give. Plumbing and HVAC contractors, roofing contractors and electrical contractors sit near their national proportions.
Counted by establishments, the order is restaurants (2,233), physicians' offices (1,027), legal services (672). Relative to population the leaders are restaurants (162.7 per 100,000 residents), physicians' offices and legal services. Grouped, medical and dental practices hold about the same as the share they hold nationally, while trucking, storage, real estate and road construction sit at about the same as.
With concrete contractors, physicians' offices and self-storage operators 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. Where the base is thin (grocery stores, general freight trucking and road and paving contractors), reach beats refinement: cover the service-plus-place searches across the whole area, because there are few competitors to split them with. A median age 0.5 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 (68.9%) 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.
Services for a business advertising in Louisville, KY, picked from the full list.
Pages that answer the specific services-plus-place searches people in Louisville, KY use, built to be found.
A website that loads fast, states the offer and gets the visitor to the phone.
Service and area pages written to answer real questions.
Display and retargeting across the sites people in Louisville, KY read.
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.
Louisville, KY has 1.37 million residents (US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimate), ranking 43rd of 387 metropolitan areas.
The median household income in Louisville, KY is $73,863 (ACS 2024 5-year), below the US median of $80,734.
The Census Bureau counts 31,628 employer establishments in Louisville, KY (County Business Patterns 2023), or 23 businesses per 1,000 residents.
The median home value in Louisville, KY is $248,700, and 68.9% of homes are owner-occupied (ACS 2024 5-year).
Measured against the US business mix (County Business Patterns 2023), concrete contractors, physicians' offices and self-storage operators have more establishments per resident than the US average; grocery stores, general freight trucking and road and paving contractors have fewer in Louisville, KY.
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Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023. Updated 2026-09-29.