Home to 647,106 people, Vermont is the 50th-largest of the 51 US states (with the District of Columbia). Below: who lives here, which trades are crowded, and where a local advertiser can gain ground.
The state contains 1 metro areas, from Burlington-South Burlington, VT (227,846 people) down to the smallest listed at the end of this page.
A $81,203 median household income puts Vermont in line with the national figure. The median home value of $316,600 is 5 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: 43.8% of adults, 8 points above the US share. A older-than-average population: median age 43.1, 4.2 years above the national median. The unemployment rate stands at 3.6%, 2 points below the US share. Owner-occupied housing 73.2%, 8 points above the US share, which is the figure home-service advertisers should watch.
How does that compare with its largest metro? Income in Vermont is 13 percent lower than the Burlington metro figure, the median home value is 21 percent lower than the Burlington metro figure, and business density is 6 percent denser than the Burlington metro figure; the full numbers are on the Burlington-South Burlington, VT page.
How crowded is the market overall? Vermont has 20,841 employer establishments. That is 32.2 establishments per 1,000 people, 29 percent above the national figure. The table breaks out the categories that spend the most on local advertising; restaurants is the biggest of them at 1,206. Of those, 1,374 are home-services contractors (plumbing and HVAC, electrical, roofing, concrete, specialty trades and landscaping), a 6.6% share of the business base, 2 points above the US share.
| Category | Locations | Per 100k people | Local ÷ US share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landscaping services | 521 | 80.5 | 1.77× |
| General automotive repair | 335 | 51.8 | 1.58× |
| Electrical contractors | 324 | 50.1 | 1.56× |
| Automobile dealers | 156 | 24.1 | 1.33× |
| Child day care services | 272 | 42 | 1.33× |
| Roofing contractors | 84 | 13 | 1.32× |
| Grocery and convenience retailers | 306 | 47.3 | 1.23× |
| Highway, street and bridge construction | 26 | 4 | 1.13× |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 303 | 46.8 | 1.09× |
| Concrete foundation and structure contractors | 61 | 9.4 | 1.05× |
| Legal services | 355 | 54.9 | 0.79× |
| Restaurants and other eating places | 1,206 | 186.4 | 0.78× |
| Other specialty trade contractors (paving, asphalt, fencing) | 81 | 12.5 | 0.76× |
| Lessors of real estate (all) | 237 | 36.6 | 0.70× |
| Dentists | 235 | 36.3 | 0.69× |
| Beauty salons | 144 | 22.3 | 0.69× |
| Personal care services (all) | 245 | 37.9 | 0.61× |
| Self-storage facilities | 25 | 3.9 | 0.54× |
| Physicians' offices | 261 | 40.3 | 0.48× |
| General freight trucking | 111 | 17.2 | 0.38× |
Index: local share of all establishments divided by the US share; above 1 means the trade is more common here than nationally.
Vermont is dense with landscaping services, general automotive repair, electrical contractors and automobile dealers compared with the US pattern. At the top of that list, landscaping services number 521, 1.8 times the US share. Where the base is lighter: general freight trucking, physicians' offices, self-storage operators and personal care services. General freight trucking show the largest gap, 111 locations, about 38% of what the national mix would give. Plumbing and HVAC contractors, concrete contractors and road and paving contractors sit near their national proportions.
Per resident the densest are restaurants at 186.4 per 100,000 people, then landscaping services and legal services. The most numerous of the listed trades: restaurants with 1,206 establishments, then landscaping services (521) and legal services (355). Sector view: automotive businesses index at 1.5 times the national share, medical and dental practices at about 56% of.
landscaping services, general automotive repair and electrical contractors face a full field here. Each new review, each answered call and each page that matches a specific search is a small edge, and the edges add up. A business in general freight trucking, physicians' offices and self-storage operators enters a lightly contested auction. That is the time to build organic visibility and a review base before the category fills in. At 73.2% owner-occupied, home-services demand comes straight from residents rather than through landlords. Residents here are older than the US median (4.2 years above the national median); they search, read reviews and call, which puts the weight on search, the listing and the phone.
Where to start in Vermont, based on the competition profile above.
A clean, fast site with one job: make the call happen.
Display and retargeting across the sites people in Vermont read.
Every Google review answered promptly in the business's own voice.
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.
Pages that answer the specific services-plus-place searches people in Vermont use, built to be found.
One conversation about your trade, your area and your goals; then a written plan.
Data: US Census Bureau ACS 2024 5-year estimates and County Business Patterns 2023.