Jackson County, MI has about as many building-exterior service businesses per resident as the national average.
Jackson County, MI has 5 with employees and 52 without — 57 building-exterior services (pressure washing, gutters, pools) in total, 3.6 per 10,000 residents, about the national rate of 4.1 (US Census, County Business Patterns + Nonemployer Statistics 2023).
- In Jackson County
- 5
- Per 10k residents
- 3.6
- National rate
- 4.1
- Ratio
- About the national rate
Population 159,835. Ranked 6 of 29 Michigan 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.
Jackson County, MI has 7 fewer building-exterior services (pressure washing, gutters, pools) than in 2017 — 64 then, 57 now, down 11%. Nationally the count grew 48% over the same years.
Jackson County moved against the national direction over these years. That is the part worth asking about locally — the data says it happened, not why.
What this doesn't tell you: Census counts how many exist each year, not how many opened or closed. A drop of 7 could be 7 closures — or 15 closures and 8 openings. 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.
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.
Jackson County sits close to the national rate for this category, which means this number is not an argument in either direction. Supply here looks ordinary. If you want to start this business, the case has to come from something this measurement cannot see — pricing, service quality, or a neighbourhood nobody covers.
Census counts these as one industry, so the 5 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
Get the county numbers for your town, free.