The median Australian trade business has 40 Google reviews

Short answer

The median Australian trade business has 40 Google reviews. It varies enormously by trade — a median of 129 for car washes against 14 for builders — and that says more about how often people hire the trade than about quality.

Half of all Australian trade businesses have fewer than 40 Google reviews. That single number reframes most star ratings you will see.

By trade

TradeMedian reviewsBusinesses
Car Washes1291,573
Removalists811,234
Driving Schools771,541
Locksmiths681,003
Mechanics5719,898
Solar Installers521,516
Pest Controllers511,396
Garage Door Specialists49584
Car Detailers481,251
Plumbers423,553
Heating & Cooling392,138
Arborists38918
Pet Groomers372,171
Pool Services371,444
Cleaners363,843
Photographers302,463
Electricians293,996
Roofers261,369
Tilers24621
Painters231,277
Fencing Contractors201,007
Gardeners & Landscapers192,259
Builders149,049

The spread is the interesting part. Car Washes sit at 129 and builders at 14. That mostly reflects how often a household hires each trade, and how likely they are to leave a review afterwards — an emergency callout gets reviewed far more often than a scheduled maintenance visit.

Why volume beats rating

A perfect five stars from four reviews and a 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable numbers, and treating them as one is how directories end up recommending whoever asked their family. This is why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score.

What this data cannot show

We hold counts and averages, not individual reviews with timestamps, so we cannot tell whether a business's reviews arrived steadily or all at once. Forty over six years and forty in a fortnight are identical in this dataset, and the second is far more likely to have been bought. It is published as a limitation rather than implied to be a check that runs.

Common questions

How many Google reviews does the average Australian tradie have?
The median is 40 across 66,104 businesses. The median is used rather than the mean because a small number of very high-volume businesses distort an average badly.
Which trade has the most reviews?
Car Washes, with a median of 129. That reflects how often the trade is hired and reviewed rather than its quality.

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