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US Census · County Business Patterns

Which local services is your county short of?

For nine kinds of home-service business, we count how many exist in each US county per 10,000 residents and compare that against the national rate. The counts come from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns — public, official, and checkable. Every page names its source and its vintage.

Roughly a third of these pages conclude that a county has more of a business than average — that is, they argue against starting one there. We publish those too. A number that only ever says yes is not a measurement.

What these pages can't tell you: they measure how many businesses exist, not how many customers want one. Census counts only establishments with paid employees, so a solo operator with no payroll is invisible in every number here. And where a county is too small for the comparison to mean anything, or the Census cell is suppressed, we publish no page at all rather than guess.

The counties moving against the countryWhere the local count fell while the national count grew, 2017–2023
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The nine categories

These are Census industry codes, not our labels — which is why one of them lumps six different businesses together, and says so.

  • Exterior & Building ServicesNAICS 561790 · building-exterior services (pressure washing, gutters, pools)
  • Cleaning ServicesNAICS 561720 · janitorial and cleaning services
  • Landscaping & Lawn CareNAICS 561730 · landscaping and lawn-care services
  • Handyman & RemodelingNAICS 236118 · residential remodelers and handyman contractors
  • Car Wash & DetailingNAICS 811192 · car washes and detailing shops
  • Pet CareNAICS 812910 · pet care services (excluding veterinary)
  • Junk Removal & HaulingNAICS 562111 · waste collection and hauling
  • Painting & StainingNAICS 238320 · painting and wall-covering contractors
  • Moving ServicesNAICS 484210 · household and office moving companies

Browse by county

The largest 120 counties. Every other US county with usable Census data has pages too — they are in the sitemap.

Source: US Census County Business Patterns ↗

Scoutway ranks all nine categories for your county, then gives you the playbook for the one you pick — pricing, first customers, licensing.

Check your county free