Editorial corrections verified September 15, 2026. Fixed 2026 edition: CBP 2023, population 2024, NES 2023, and business applications Aug-2025 through Jul-2026.
How big is the US cleaning industry? As of Census County Business Patterns 2023, the United States has 67,799 employer establishments in this category employing 1,088,193 people, with combined annual payroll of $32.7 billion. This page compiles market size, state distribution, payroll measures, nonemployer activity where published, and broader-sector business applications — every number sourced to federal data, with the limits below.
Census County Business Patterns counts employer establishments in Janitorial Services (NAICS 561720), not every cleaning business or every firm. An establishment is a business location; one firm can operate more than one.
Figures in the market-size tables cover employer establishments in Janitorial Services (NAICS 561720) — businesses with at least one paid employee. Solo cleaners without payroll are counted separately in the solo operators section below.
Key Cleaning Industry Statistics
- There are 67,799 employer establishments in this Census category in the United States (County Business Patterns, 2023).
- Employer establishments are the minority form: 1,095,927 businesses without paid employees operate as nonemployer businesses (2023 Census Nonemployer Statistics) — 16.2 for every employer establishment.
- Those establishments employ 1,088,193 people with combined annual payroll of $32.7 billion.
- Annual payroll divided by March employment averages $30,089 per employee per year (includes part-time staff and all occupations in the category — not an occupational wage or FTE salary). The average establishment has 16.1 employees and $483k in annual payroll.
- California has the most establishments of any state — 6,956, or 10.3% of the national total.
- Relative to population, Montana has the highest employer-establishment density (44.8 per 100,000 residents) and West Virginia the lowest (11.0). Density is not the same as local opportunity or saturation of every competitor.
- Payroll per March employee is highest in Alaska ($43,343) and lowest in Mississippi ($20,979).
- The category accounts for 0.81% of all US employer establishments.
- Americans filed 422,124 business applications in the broader Administrative & Support and Waste Management sector (NAICS56) in the twelve months from Aug-2025 through Jul-2026 — a +16.3% change year over year (Census Business Formation Statistics). Those are sector-wide applications, not completed employer formations and not counts limited to this 6-digit industry.
- sole prop net profit by state
- employer credit access (ABS)
- employer ownership mix (ABS)
Market Size
For changes over time, see where cleaning employer locations grew fastest. The 2018–2023 Census comparison shows location gains alongside employment and nominal payroll, including states with declining counts.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Employer establishments | 67,799 |
| Employees (March employment) | 1,088,193 |
| Annual payroll | $32.7 billion |
| Annual payroll / March employment | $30,089/year |
| Average employees per establishment | 16.1 |
| Average payroll per establishment | $483k/year |
| Share of all US employer establishments | 0.81% |
The Biggest States
| State | Establishments | Employees |
|---|---|---|
| California | 6,956 | 116,330 |
| Florida | 6,675 | 65,978 |
| Texas | 3,858 | 82,256 |
| New York | 3,762 | 76,457 |
| Illinois | 2,520 | 50,936 |
Market size is not the same as local opportunity. Relative to population, Montana has the highest employer-establishment density (44.8 per 100,000 residents) while West Virginia has the lowest (11.0). Density omits nonemployers and does not measure contracts, service radius, or competitors serving the same customers. We publish a separate screening index with its own methodology caveats: Best States to Start a Cleaning Business.
Payroll by State
Alongside payroll and headcount, use our nonfatal workplace injury and illness comparison for employee-case benchmarks. It separates janitorial and carpet-cleaning categories and shows why a case rate is not a percentage of employees injured.
These figures are annual industry payroll divided by March employment for employer establishments in the category. They include part-time employees and all occupations on the payroll. They are not BLS occupational wage quotes, technician/stylist pay rates, or complete hiring costs.
| Highest payroll / March employment | Annual |
|---|---|
| Alaska | $43,343 |
| New York | $39,426 |
| Washington | $36,308 |
| California | $36,126 |
| Massachusetts | $32,432 |
| Lowest payroll / March employment | Annual |
|---|---|
| Mississippi | $20,979 |
| South Dakota | $20,983 |
| Arkansas | $21,840 |
| West Virginia | $22,862 |
| Louisiana | $23,373 |
Businesses Without Paid Employees: The Nonemployer Side
For state-level nonemployer shares of establishments (NES ÷ NES + CBP) across cleaning and peer services in 2023, see nonemployer share by state. That study answers where the same NAICS stays mostly without paid employees, not just national ratios.
For private QCEW average annual pay and employees per establishment by state (2024), see employer pay and location size by state.
For whether cleaning payroll employment grows when state unemployment falls — a correlation check against FRED unemployment rates — see unemployment vs service hiring by state. Related: personal income vs business formation — BEA income growth vs Census applications by state.
Related: service business openings, closings, and churn — BLS BED state × sector job flows (professional & business services contains administrative/support employers at this grain; not janitorial-only).
Related: home-services demand by state — ACS owner-occupied housing stock as home-services demand context (not cleaning payroll).
To put these figures in context, compare businesses without employees across service industries. That study pairs 2022 nonemployer counts with employer firms rather than locations and separately compares revenue shares; it uses a different reference year from the figures below.
Nonemployers have no paid employees, but they are not necessarily one-person or full-time operations. Some are partnerships or corporations, and some provide secondary income. The receipts below are business revenue, not owner pay. Census definitions.
For who does the work, see the share of building cleaning workers born outside the U.S., by state.
The employer figures above are only part of the picture. The Census Bureau counts businesses with no paid employees separately, as nonemployers — and in this industry they are the majority: 1,095,927 businesses without paid employees filed as nonemployer businesses in 2023, about 16.2 for every employer establishment. Together they took in $22.8 billion in receipts — an average of $20,785 per solo business per year.
States With the Most Solo Cleaners
| State | Nonemployer businesses | Avg annual receipts | Solo per employer establishment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 166,471 | $20,849 | 24.9 |
| Texas | 128,126 | $18,613 | 33.2 |
| California | 111,227 | $23,465 | 16.0 |
| Georgia | 53,596 | $21,575 | 26.6 |
| New York | 50,876 | $17,612 | 13.5 |
Solo operation is highest relative to employers in Mississippi (33.3 nonemployers per employer establishment) and lowest in Alaska (6.2), where a larger share of the industry runs on payroll.
Revenue Benchmarks for Cleaning Businesses
Businesses without paid employees averaged $20,785 in gross receipts in 2023, before expenses. Separately, the 2022 Economic Census reports $72.611 billion in revenue across 68,108 employer establishments, or $1,066,121 per location. County Business Patterns supplies payroll, not revenue; employer revenue is available from the Economic Census, including state totals. The years and counting units differ. Our cleaning-business revenue study provides the revenue brackets, state comparisons and downloadable data.
Where Solo Cleaners Gross the Most
| State | Avg annual receipts (solo) | Solo businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | $34,034 | 16,439 |
| Hawaii | $32,216 | 4,473 |
| Colorado | $26,738 | 17,628 |
| Washington | $26,570 | 14,511 |
| Utah | $26,287 | 7,671 |
States with fewer than 1,000 nonemployer businesses excluded to avoid small-sample noise. Receipts are gross revenue as reported to the IRS, before any expenses.
New Business Formation
The Census Bureau tracks new business applications (Business Formation Statistics). In the twelve months from Aug-2025 through Jul-2026, Americans filed 422,124 applications in the Administrative & Support and Waste Management sector (NAICS56 — the broader 2-digit sector that contains this industry) — a +16.3% change from the prior twelve months. Applications are not completed employer formations, state LLC registrations, or measured growth in this 6-digit industry alone. State-by-state application counts, per-capita rates, and trends are on our business formation statistics page. For how new ventures fare once launched — 1-, 5-, and 10-year odds in every state — see business survival rates by state; for what they borrow to get started, SBA loan statistics. For insurance requirements state by state, see the cleaning business insurance guide.
Considering an LLC for your business?
An LLC is one business-structure option; it is not a universal requirement for starting a cleaning business. Many of the nonemployer businesses in these statistics operate without an LLC. Choose the structure that fits your circumstances and check operating licenses separately. If you choose an LLC, compare ZenBusiness filing services and current pricing.
Affiliate link — we earn a commission at no cost to you.
See our cleaning business lawsuits: four court decisions for four documented coverage disputes and questions to ask before buying a policy. These selected cases do not measure how often cleaning claims occur.
Explore federal janitorial contract spending by state for state and agency totals, recorded competition categories and steps to research current solicitations. The cleaning-specific study measures FY2025 transaction obligations, not lifetime award values or open bids.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many cleaning business businesses are there in the US?
There are 67,799 employer establishments in this Census category in the United States as of the 2023 County Business Patterns, employing 1,088,193 people. Figures in the market-size tables cover employer establishments in Janitorial Services (NAICS 561720) — businesses with at least one paid employee. Solo cleaners without payroll are counted separately in the solo operators section below.
How big is the US cleaning industry?
Measured by payroll, employer establishments in the category pay $32.7 billion in annual payroll across 1,088,193 employees — $30,089 when annual payroll is divided by March employment. That ratio is not an occupational wage quote or full-time-equivalent salary.
Which state has the most cleaning business businesses?
California leads with 6,956 employer establishments (10.3% of the US total), followed by Florida (6,675) and Texas (3,858).
How many self-employed solo cleaners are there in the US?
The Census Bureau’s 2023 Nonemployer Statistics count 1,095,927 operations with no paid employees in this category — not necessarily single-person operations — averaging $20,785 in annual receipts. That is about 16.2 nonemployer businesses for every employer establishment.
How much does a cleaning business make?
The 2023 nonemployer mean was $20,785 in annual gross receipts, not profit or owner income. For employer establishments, the 2022 Economic Census reports a separate mean of $1,066,121 per location. It also publishes state revenue totals. See our revenue analysis and methodology before comparing these different populations and years.
Related: fuel costs for mobile cleaning fleets — EIA prices plus a labeled janitorial van fuel scenario.
Sources & Citation
| Data | Source | Vintage |
|---|---|---|
| Establishments, employment, payroll (NAICS 561720, Janitorial Services) | U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns | 2023 |
| Business applications (broader sector NAICS56, not 6-digit industry formations) | U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics | Aug-2025 through Jul-2026 |
| Solo operators (nonemployer businesses, NAICS 56172, Janitorial Services) | U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics | 2023 |
| State population (per-capita rates) | U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates | 2024 |
Definitions: CBP establishments, employment and payroll; BFS applications versus formations; NAICS industry scope. Business structures: SBA business-structure guidance.
You are welcome to cite these statistics with attribution and a link to this page. The editorial correction date does not mean the Census inputs were advanced past the fixed edition above.
For operators assembling a commercial bid (labor + burden + overhead, margin vs markup), see how to price a commercial cleaning contract.