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Research · Best cities · 2026

Best cities for interior design and architecture businesses

The best large city for a new design firm is Gilbert, AZ: population up 7.2% since 2020, 7 Google reviews for the local top quarter, and 3.8 listed interior design and architecture businesses per 100,000 residents.

Key findings

  • The best large city for a new design firm is Gilbert, AZ: population up 7.2% since 2020, 7 Google reviews for the local top quarter, and 3.8 listed interior design and architecture businesses per 100,000 residents.
  • The rest of the top five: Bakersfield, CA, Reno, NV, Gainesville, FL and North Charleston, SC.
  • Hardest of the 147 cities ranked: Portland, OR (18 reviews for the top quarter), Costa Mesa, CA (13 reviews for the top quarter) and San Mateo, CA (19 reviews for the top quarter).

Page One Partner Research · 147 cities of 100,000+ ranked · Census population estimates (Vintage 2024) · Updated November 2026 · Methodology

Opportunity score, top 15 cities

0–100: population growth, review count needed to compete, and businesses per resident, ranked within this trade.

Top 15 cities for a new design firm

CityScorePopulation growth 2020–24Reviews for local top quarterListed per 100k residentsBusinesses listedPopulation (2024)
Gilbert, AZ87.97.2%6.83.811288,790
Bakersfield, CA823%6.33.113417,468
Reno, NV81.36.3%57.521281,714
Gainesville, FL81.14.5%4.86.710148,720
North Charleston, SC799%77.910126,005
Santa Ana, CA77.21.6%53.812316,184
Huntsville, AL76.76.5%6.38.219230,402
Laredo, TX74.92.3%7.33.810261,260
Fresno, CA74.41.4%7.32.916550,105
Fort Worth, TX71.79.1%14.54.5451,008,106
Charlotte, NC71.57.8%10.37.167943,476
Oklahoma City, OK714.4%105.338712,919
Winston-Salem, NC70.52.6%6718255,769
San Antonio, TX70.36.1%143.5531,526,656
Durham, NC70.37.2%107.623301,870

Hardest cities to break into

CityScorePopulation growth 2020–24Reviews for local top quarterListed per 100k residentsBusinesses listedPopulation (2024)
Portland, OR13.2-2.7%1816102635,749
Costa Mesa, CA15.5-2.6%1335.739109,131
San Mateo, CA16.7-2.5%1912.613103,006
Glendale, CA17.6-4.1%16.512.223187,823
Fort Collins, CO21.20.5%20.316.428170,924

Answers

Questions about starting out as a new design firm

What is the best city for a new design firm?

Gilbert, AZ, by Page One Partner Research's opportunity score among 147 U.S. cities of 100,000+ residents (November 2026), followed by Bakersfield, CA, Reno, NV and Gainesville, FL.

Where is it hardest to compete as a new design firm?

Among the cities ranked, Portland, OR: interior design and architecture businesses there need 18 Google reviews to reach the local top quarter (Page One Partner Research, November 2026).

Methodology

How the ranking works

Scope: every figure here describes businesses listed in the Page One Partner directory, not every business in the United States. Counts are businesses in our directory, not totals for a trade, state or city; percentages and benchmarks describe our listings and can differ from the whole market.

Source: the Page One Partner directory, 1,720,977 U.S. local service business listings (all 50 states and Washington, D.C.), each built from the business's public Google Business Profile and public business records. Listings held back by our quality checks (a phone number from another state, a map pin far from the stated city, a Google match that belonged to a different business) are excluded.

Trades: each business is filed under one trade from its Google category. Only trades with at least 1,000 listings are reported, and rating figures use trades with at least 200 businesses carrying 10 or more reviews.

Population: U.S. Census Bureau city and town population estimates (Vintage 2024, public domain). Only cities with at least 100,000 residents are ranked (321 cities), and only markets with at least 10 listed businesses in the trade (10,509 city-and-trade markets).

Opportunity score (0–100): the average of three percentile ranks among the ranked cities for that trade: population growth from 2020 to 2024 (faster = higher), the Google review count needed to reach the local top quarter (lower = higher), and listed businesses per 100,000 residents (fewer = higher). Equal weights; no demand, price or licensing data.

Coverage: listings for each trade were collected from that trade's 400 largest U.S. cities, so coverage is thorough in those cities and partial elsewhere. Every city in this ranking has 100,000+ residents, which places it inside those markets.

Important limit: a business's city is its postal city, which can cover more ground than the city limits the Census counts (many unincorporated addresses use the name of a nearby city). Cities whose postal name covers a wide area look more crowded per resident than they are, and their suburbs look less crowded. Treat the per-resident figure as indicative and read the review bar and growth alongside it.

Figures are aggregates. Page One Partner does not publish business-level rows from this research. The aggregate tables are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: credit "Page One Partner Research" with a link to the study.

Recomputed weekly from the live directory; this edition was computed in November 2026. Small shifts between editions are expected as businesses are added and ratings change.

For business owners

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Writing about this data?

Every figure is free to cite and chart under CC BY 4.0. Credit “Page One Partner Research” and link to this page. The numbers describe businesses listed in our directory, not every business in the country.

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