The Rochester, NY market, by the numbers

Who lives in Rochester, NY

This is the Rochester metropolitan area in New York.

The median household in Rochester, NY earns $76,284 a year, 6 percent below the national figure (the US median is $80,734). Home values tell their own story; here the median is $204,600, 39 percent below the national figure. Read together, they frame the buying power of the market.

A labor force of 541,295 carries an unemployment rate of 4.7%, about the same as the US share. 67.3% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, 2 points above the US share. Among adults 25 and over, 38.2% have at least a bachelor's degree, 2 points above the US share. The median resident is 40.7 years old, 1.8 years above the national median.

Set against the state as a whole (New York), household income here is 11 percent lower than the New York figure, the median home value is 52 percent lower than the New York figure, and the business base per resident is 17 percent thinner than the New York figure.

Establishments by trade

By the Census Bureau's count Rochester, NY supports 23,916 employer establishments. Density runs 22.6 businesses for every 1,000 residents, 10 percent below the national figure. The table breaks out the categories that spend the most on local advertising; restaurants is the biggest of them at 1,929. The home-services slice is 1,238 establishments, 5.2% of the base, about the same as the US share.

The last column divides the local share of establishments by the national share (1.00 = the same mix as the US).

The market over-indexes on general automotive repair, landscaping services, automobile dealers and specialty trade contractors. The sharpest example is general automotive repair: 347 establishments, 1.4 times the share seen nationally. Less common here than nationally: concrete contractors, physicians' offices, general freight trucking and legal services. Concrete contractors are the widest shortfall at 25 establishments, about 37% of the US share. Neither crowded nor thin: plumbing and HVAC contractors, roofing contractors and electrical contractors.

By raw count the largest categories here are restaurants (1,929), personal care services (571) and landscaping services (471). Per 100,000 residents: restaurants 182.3, followed by personal care services and landscaping services. Across the groups, automotive businesses run 1.4 times the US share and medical and dental practices about 69% of.

What this means for advertising here

With general automotive repair, landscaping services and automobile dealers 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. For concrete contractors, physicians' offices and general freight trucking, the opportunity is coverage. Few competitors means the business that shows up for every nearby town and every variant of the search collects most of it. A median age 1.8 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.