Google Review Statistics 2026: Benchmarks by Industry

Key statistics

• 4.8★ median Google rating of a US local business (38,547 businesses in 50 industries and 103 cities)
• 92 median number of Google reviews per business
• 7% of businesses are rated below 4.0★; in 47 of 50 industries a 4.0★ rating sits in the bottom fifth
• 36% of property management companies are rated below 4.0★, the lowest-rated industry (median 4.3★)
• 408 vs 11 median Google reviews of a dentist vs a counseling practice, the widest gap between industries
• 56% of the most visible 1–2★ self-storage reviews carry an owner reply, against 86% of 4–5★ ones
• 46% of self-storage facilities showing a 1–2★ review leave at least one unanswered
• 92% vs 70% owner reply rate of brand-name self-storage operators vs independents, on their most visible reviews
• 36% of senior living communities replied to none of their most visible reviews (51% of those reviews carry a reply)
• 3.1 days median wait for an owner reply to a 1–2★ senior living review, against 1.1 days for a 4–5★ one

Key findings

• The typical US local business on Google has a 4.8★ rating and 92 reviews (medians across 38,547 businesses); only 7% are rated below 4.0★.
• Property management companies are the lowest-rated industry: a median of 4.3★, and 36% of companies sit below 4.0★. Urgent care clinics (25%) and senior living communities (22%) follow.
• Review volume differs by industry far more than rating does: the median dentist has 408 Google reviews, the median counseling practice 11.
• Self-storage owners reply to 86% of their most visible 4–5★ reviews but only 56% of 1–2★ ones; 46% of facilities showing a 1–2★ review leave at least one unanswered.
• Senior living communities reply to 51% of their most visible reviews; 36% replied to none, and a 1–2★ review waits a median 3.1 days for a reply versus 1.1 days for a 4–5★ one.

What is a good Google rating for your industry?

A 4.0★ rating sounds fine, but in 47 of the 50 industries below it would put a business in the bottom fifth. What counts as "good" is relative: compare your profile with your own industry's median and with its "top quarter" review count, the number that puts a business ahead of 75% of its local peers.

"Top quarter has" = the 75th-percentile review count: a business with at least that many reviews has more than three quarters of its industry. Every row has a citable anchor, e.g. https://reputemap.com/google-review-benchmarks#industry-dental. Decimals, the 25th and 90th percentiles and each industry's Google Maps search are in the CSV.

Do businesses reply to their Google reviews?

We read the reviews Google shows first on each listing (its "most relevant" sort, up to eight per business) for two industries where one review can swing a long-term decision: self-storage (1,746 facilities, 11,482 reviews) and senior living (2,007 communities, 12,758 reviews). In both, owners answer praise more readily than complaints, though complaints are what the next customer reads most closely.

Owner replies to the most visible Google reviews, August 23, 2026 – September 18, 2026

Measure	Self-storage	Senior living
Reviews with an owner reply	83%	51%
…of 1–2★ reviews	56%	41%
…of 4–5★ reviews	86%	53%
Businesses that replied to none of them	9%	36%
Businesses showing a 1–2★ review that left at least one unanswered	46% of 774	64% of 1,016
Median time to reply to a 1–2★ review	0.7 days	3.1 days
Median time to reply to a 4–5★ review	0.1 days	1.1 days
Share of all reviews that are 1–2★	4%	14%

In self-storage, listings carrying one of 21 national or regional brand names replied to 92% of their visible reviews (1,020 facilities); independent and smaller operators replied to 70% (726 facilities).

Senior living up close: who answers the complaints

Narrowing the senior living listings to assisted living facilities and retirement communities (1,245 communities in 17 metro areas, 7,777 reviews), owners replied to 54% of the reviews Google shows first and to 48% of the 1–2★ ones. One community in three (33%) replied to none of them. Of the 541 communities showing a 1–2★ review, 58% left at least one unanswered. A complaint waits a median 3.6 days for a reply, against 1.3 for praise, and 33% of complaint replies come more than a week later.

Brand-name operators answer complaints far more often. Communities carrying one of 25 national or regional operator names replied to 76% of their visible 1–2★ reviews; independent and smaller operators replied to 44%. Only 13% of brand-name communities replied to none of their visible reviews, against 35% of independents.

Nursing homes (206 listings) are rated lowest: a median 3.8★, with 58% below 4.0★, and owners replied to 38% of their visible 1–2★ reviews.

The metro gap is wider than the brand gap. In Indianapolis, IN, communities replied to 72% of their visible reviews; in Tampa, FL, to 31%, and 56% replied to none.

Property managers by city

Property management is the lowest-rated of the 50 industries, and one company in ten (10%) sits below 3.0★. Where it happens matters: in Columbia, SC, 60% of property managers are rated below 4.0★; in Charlotte, NC, 15%.

What the benchmarks mean for one business

• Judge your rating against your industry. A 4.3★ property manager is typical; a 4.3★ chiropractor is in the bottom 2% of chiropractors. The rating calculator shows how many 5★ reviews your next tenth of a star takes.
• Volume is the gap you can close fastest. Reaching your industry's "top quarter" review count usually takes a steady habit of asking every customer, not a campaign. See how to get more Google reviews within Google's rules.
• Answer the 1–2★ reviews first. They are the ones businesses skip, and the ones prospects read. A reply within a day is easy when the review reaches you as an alert with a reply already drafted: that is what negative-review alerts are for.

Method and limitations

Who is in the data. We searched Google Maps for one term per industry (for example "dentist", "self storage", "property management") in 103 large and mid-size US cities between August 23, 2026 – September 18, 2026, and kept every listing with at least one review. Industries appear only with 200+ businesses and cover between 8 and 45 cities each. A business is counted once, in the first industry search that found it. The CSV lists the exact search behind each row.

What it is not. This is not a random sample of all US businesses: Google Maps returns established listings in larger cities first, so small towns and very new businesses are under-represented, and ratings may read slightly high. Ratings and review counts are a snapshot from the collection dates.

Owner replies. For self-storage and senior living we read the reviews Google lists first for each listing (up to eight, Google's "most relevant" order), and counted a review as answered if it showed an owner response. Reply time is the gap between the review's date and the response's date as Google publishes them. Because "most relevant" is Google's own ordering, these rates describe what a prospect sees first, not every review a business has. A self-storage listing counts as a "brand" when its name contains one of these 21 operator names: extra space, public storage, cubesmart, u-haul, uhaul, life storage, storage king, storquest, simply self storage, smartstop, securcare, storage rentals of america, istorage, 10 federal, store space, sparebox, prime storage, storage sense, national storage, compass self storage, west coast self-storage.

Deep dives (added October 9, 2026). Same collection, same reply rules. "Assisted living and retirement communities" are the senior living listings whose Google category is Aged care, Assisted living facility, Retirement community, Retirement home; nursing homes are counted separately, and home care agencies and senior apartments are left out. A community counts as a brand-name operator when its name contains one of these 25 operator names: Brookdale, Sunrise of, Atria, Belmont Village, Discovery Village, American House, Independence Village, Avalon Memory Care, Vitality Living, Bickford, Morning Pointe, Silverado, Watermark, Merrill Gardens, MBK, Oakmont, Aegis, Sagora, Cedarhurst, Spring Hills, HarborChase, Arbor Terrace, Arden Courts, Solstice, Pacifica. Metro areas are the city searched; a metro appears with 40+ communities, so its percentages rest on tens of communities, not hundreds. Property managers by city use the same 1,802 companies as the industry table, shown for cities with 20+ companies.

Privacy. We publish aggregates only: no business names, addresses or review texts. The numbers are regenerated by a script from the raw collection, so every figure on this page traces back to it.

How to cite

ReputeMap (2026), Google Review Statistics 2026: Benchmarks by Industry, https://reputemap.com/google-review-benchmarks. Link to a statistic, a finding or an industry row with its anchor (for example https://reputemap.com/google-review-benchmarks#self-storage-reply-gap). The data is licensed CC BY 4.0: reuse it with a link. Every table is also on GitHub as CSV, with a data dictionary and a CITATION.cff file. For third-party survey numbers (how consumers read reviews, rating thresholds, the FTC rule), see our online review statistics, each verified against its primary source.

FAQ