Ada County, ID has 1.3× fewer building-exterior service businesses per resident than the national average.
Ada County, ID has 28 with employees and 143 without — 171 building-exterior services (pressure washing, gutters, pools) in total, 3.2 per 10,000 residents against a national rate of 4.1. That's 1.3× fewer than average (US Census, County Business Patterns + Nonemployer Statistics 2023).
- In Ada County
- 28
- Per 10k residents
- 3.2
- National rate
- 4.1
- Ratio
- 1.3× fewer than average
Population 526,690. Ranked 4 of 7 Idaho counties with enough exterior & building services data to compare — 1 = fewest per resident.
Sources: US Census County Business Patterns ↗ (businesses with employees) and Nonemployer Statistics ↗ (sole proprietors). Every figure here is the two added together.
Ada County, ID has 53 more building-exterior services (pressure washing, gutters, pools) than in 2017 — 118 then, 171 now, up 45%. Nationally the count grew 48% over the same years.
What this doesn't tell you: Census counts how many exist each year, not how many opened or closed. A rise of 53 could be 53 new businesses — or 61 openings and 8 closures. A year Census suppressed for this county is left out rather than counted as zero.
Series runs 2017–2023. Earlier vintages exist but are not comparable: Census changed which small counties it publishes after 2016, so including them would show counties losing an industry that never left.
Census code 561790 is “Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings” — a catch-all for building and dwelling services that have no code of their own. Pressure washing, gutter cleaning, pool service, bin cleaning and holiday lighting all land here, but so do chimney sweeping, duct cleaning and drain cleaning.
The blind spot: This is the coarsest code on the site, and it is a leftovers bucket rather than a category. It cannot tell a gutter cleaner from a pool cleaner from a pressure washer — and it also counts interior trades like chimney sweeps and duct cleaners that none of the businesses here compete with. A county can look well covered on the strength of firms doing work you would never do.
What this doesn't tell you: A low count can mean an opening — or that there's less local demand for it. This counts how many businesses exist, including sole proprietors, but not how many customers want one. Treat it as a lead to check, not a verdict.
County Business Patterns counts only establishments with paid employees, which is why this page adds Nonemployer Statistics — the sole operators with no payroll, who are the majority in most of these trades. Both are counted above, and both are on census.gov if you want to check them.
Fewer of these per resident than the country average is a reason to look, not a reason to start. The two explanations the data cannot separate are “nobody has served this yet” and “there is less to serve here” — a county with few pool services may simply have few pools. The next step is not a business plan, it is ten phone calls to people in Ada County who would pay for it.
Census counts these as one industry, so the 28 above includes all of them together. It cannot tell you how many are any single one.
- •Driveway, patio & house-siding pressure washing
- •Seasonal gutter cleaning with a twice-a-year plan
- •Curbside trash-bin cleaning on a monthly subscription
- •Holiday light install & takedown (a few intense weeks)
- •Recurring pool cleaning & maintenance route
- •Exterior-cleaning company (windows + pressure + gutters) with a crew
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