Roanoke, VA has 314,986 residents and sits 165th among the 387 US metropolitan areas by population. Households, home values, education, business density, and which trades are already crowded, all from Census data.
The metropolitan statistical area is centered on Roanoke, Virginia.
The median household in Roanoke, VA earns $68,761 a year, 15 percent below the national figure (the US median is $80,734). For housing, the median value is $251,400, 24 percent below the national figure. Together they say a good deal about the ticket sizes a local business can expect.
Bachelor's degree or higher: 31.3% of adults, 4 points below the US share. A labor force of 152,994 carries an unemployment rate of 3.6%, 2 points below the US share. Homeownership is 68.6% here, 3 points above the US share; that is the pool of people who hire roofers, plumbers and landscapers rather than calling a landlord. The median age is 42.8, 3.9 years above the national median, so this is a older market than the country as a whole.
Set against the state as a whole (Virginia), household income here is 26 percent lower than the Virginia figure, the median home value is 34 percent lower than the Virginia figure, and the business base per resident is 10 percent denser than the Virginia figure.
The business base: 8,368 establishments with employees. That works out to 26.6 businesses per 1,000 residents, 6 percent above the national figure (the national rate is 25 per 1,000). 412 of them are home-services contractors, 4.9% of everything, about the same as the US share. The busiest category listed below is restaurants (557 establishments).
| Business type | Establishments | Per 100k residents | Share ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roofing contractors | 16 | 5.1 | 0.63× |
| Self-storage facilities | 19 | 6 | 1.02× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 24 | 7.6 | 2.59× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 26 | 8.3 | 1.11× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 56 | 17.8 | 1.31× |
| Electrical contractors | 65 | 20.6 | 0.78× |
| Child day care services | 66 | 21 | 0.80× |
| Automobile dealers | 69 | 21.9 | 1.47× |
| Dentists | 93 | 29.5 | 0.68× |
| General freight trucking | 97 | 30.8 | 0.83× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 109 | 34.6 | 0.98× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 111 | 35.2 | 0.81× |
| General automotive repair | 115 | 36.5 | 1.35× |
| Beauty salons | 115 | 36.5 | 1.37× |
| Landscaping services | 140 | 44.4 | 1.19× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 154 | 48.9 | 1.54× |
| Personal care services (all) | 184 | 58.4 | 1.14× |
| Legal services | 199 | 63.2 | 1.10× |
| Physicians' offices | 208 | 66 | 0.95× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 557 | 176.8 | 0.90× |
Reading the index: 1.00 matches the national mix, 1.50 means half again as common here, 0.50 half as common.
Against the US mix, road and paving contractors, grocery stores, automobile dealers and beauty salons are over-represented. Road and paving contractors show it most, with 24 establishments, 2.6 times the share nationwide. By contrast roofing contractors, dentists, electrical contractors and child day care services are comparatively scarce in Roanoke, VA. Roofing contractors are the thinnest at 16, about 63% of the national share. Neither crowded nor thin: plumbing and HVAC contractors, concrete contractors and physicians' offices.
Scaled to residents, restaurants run 176.8 per 100,000, more than physicians' offices or legal services. By raw count the largest categories here are restaurants (557), physicians' offices (208) and legal services (199). By sector, automotive businesses are the most over-represented at 1.4 times the US share; medical and dental practices are the least, at about 85% of.
Many competitors in road and paving contractors, grocery stores and automobile dealers means the auction is expensive and the map pack is crowded; the winners are the profiles with the freshest reviews and the pages that answer the search precisely. The thin categories, roofing contractors, dentists and electrical contractors, are the cheapest place to build a name: fewer bidders, cheaper clicks, and searchers with fewer options. At 68.6% owner-occupied, home-services demand comes straight from residents rather than through landlords. A median age 3.9 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. Where income runs 15 percent below the national figure, financing and clear pricing belong in the ad itself, not on a later page.
Matched to the data: the services most likely to earn their cost in Roanoke, VA.
Design and build of a site that turns local traffic into leads.
An answering service that books and qualifies rather than sending callers to voicemail.
Pay-per-lead placements at the very top of results for eligible trades.
Campaigns on Google fenced to the service area and judged on booked work.
The map listing, kept accurate, photographed and posted to every week.
Pages that answer the specific services-plus-place searches people in Roanoke, VA use, built to be found.
Roanoke, VA has 314,986 residents (US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimate), ranking 165th of 387 metropolitan areas.
The median household income in Roanoke, VA is $68,761 (ACS 2024 5-year), below the US median of $80,734.
The Census Bureau counts 8,368 employer establishments in Roanoke, VA (County Business Patterns 2023), or 26.6 businesses per 1,000 residents.
The median home value in Roanoke, VA is $251,400, and 68.6% of homes are owner-occupied (ACS 2024 5-year).
Measured against the US business mix (County Business Patterns 2023), road and paving contractors, grocery stores and automobile dealers have more establishments per resident than the US average; roofing contractors, dentists and electrical contractors have fewer in Roanoke, VA.
Bring the trade and the towns you serve; we bring the numbers and a plan.
Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023. Updated 2026-09-29.