Marion County, IA has about as many pet-care businesses per resident as the national average.
Marion County, IA has 5 with employees and 9 without — 14 pet care services (excluding veterinary) in total, 4.2 per 10,000 residents, about the national rate of 4.7 (US Census, County Business Patterns + Nonemployer Statistics 2023).
- In Marion County
- 5
- Per 10k residents
- 4.2
- National rate
- 4.7
- Ratio
- About the national rate
Population 33,718. Ranked 10 of 32 Iowa counties with enough pet care data to compare — 1 = fewest per resident.
Source: US Census County Business Patterns ↗Marion County, IA had 6 pet care services (excluding veterinary) with employees in 2017 and 5 in 2023 — little changed. Nationally the count grew 42% over the same years.
What this doesn't tell you: Census counts how many exist each year, not how many opened or closed. A count that barely moves can still hide plenty of churn underneath it. It also can't see solo operators without employees, in any year.
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 812910 covers non-veterinary pet services: boarding kennels, grooming, daycare, training and pet sitting.
The blind spot: Dog walking is overwhelmingly done by solo operators with no employees, and this count cannot see any of them. What it mostly counts is grooming salons and boarding facilities — premises businesses that a walker does not really compete with.
County Business Patterns counts establishments with paid employees. A solo operator with no payroll — the most likely competitor for most of these businesses — is invisible to it, in every county, including this one.
Marion 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.
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