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Salons are everywhere — which is exactly why the state numbers matter. Beauty-salon density ranges from 10 establishments per 100,000 residents in Mississippi to 39 in New Jersey, a spread that decides whether a new chair fills in weeks or years. Stylist labor costs and average payroll per salon vary just as widely.
This ranking scores all 50 states and DC on salon market density, payroll per establishment, labor cost, and how fast each state is forming new businesses right now.
The Top 10 States
| Rank | State | Establishments | Firms per 100k | Payroll per firm | Pay per employee | New biz apps per 1k* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delaware* | 277 | 26.3 | $213k | $32,307 | 58.0 |
| 2 | Mississippi | 302 | 10.3 | $125k | $29,754 | 20.9 |
| 3 | Tennessee | 1,062 | 14.7 | $219k | $34,202 | 15.9 |
| 4 | District of Columbia† | 154 | 21.9 | $320k | $46,914 | 22.5 |
| 5 | Montana | 224 | 19.7 | $108k | $31,535 | 28.4 |
| 6 | Kentucky | 680 | 14.8 | $141k | $30,213 | 16.6 |
| 7 | Texas | 5,740 | 18.3 | $174k | $33,591 | 18.8 |
| 8 | Missouri | 1,236 | 19.8 | $163k | $30,947 | 18.5 |
| 9 | Nevada | 656 | 20.1 | $129k | $29,362 | 21.1 |
| 10 | Wyoming* | 127 | 21.6 | $82k | $29,531 | 145.0 |
Deep-dive guides for the leaders: how to start in Delaware · how to start in Mississippi · how to start in Tennessee · how to start in Montana.
How We Ranked the States
Each state is scored on four factors, standardized as z-scores and weighted. Higher is better for revenue and momentum; lower is better for competition and labor cost.
- Market saturation (30%) — establishments per 100,000 residents in NAICS 812112 (Beauty Salons), U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns, 2023. Fewer competitors per capita scores higher.
- Payroll per establishment (25%) — annual payroll divided by establishment count, same source. A proxy for how much paid work the average firm supports.
- Labor cost (20%) — annual payroll per employee in the industry, same source. Cheaper labor scores higher for a new owner-operator.
- New-business momentum (25%) — business applications per 1,000 residents, Aug-2025 through Jul-2026, U.S. Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics. Values are capped at the 5th–95th percentile before scoring (see footnotes).
Population denominators use Census Bureau 2024 state population estimates. The weights are editorial judgment — we publish every underlying number in the table so you can re-rank by whichever factor matters most to your salon.
Footnotes: *Wyoming and Delaware business-application counts are heavily inflated by non-resident LLC filings routed through registered agents; we cap their momentum factor before scoring and show the raw number in the table. †District of Columbia is a city-scale market and behaves unlike full states on density and payroll measures.
All 51 States and DC, Ranked
| Rank | State | Establishments | Firms per 100k | Payroll per firm | Pay per employee | New biz apps per 1k* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delaware* | 277 | 26.3 | $213k | $32,307 | 58.0 |
| 2 | Mississippi | 302 | 10.3 | $125k | $29,754 | 20.9 |
| 3 | Tennessee | 1,062 | 14.7 | $219k | $34,202 | 15.9 |
| 4 | District of Columbia† | 154 | 21.9 | $320k | $46,914 | 22.5 |
| 5 | Montana | 224 | 19.7 | $108k | $31,535 | 28.4 |
| 6 | Kentucky | 680 | 14.8 | $141k | $30,213 | 16.6 |
| 7 | Texas | 5,740 | 18.3 | $174k | $33,591 | 18.8 |
| 8 | Missouri | 1,236 | 19.8 | $163k | $30,947 | 18.5 |
| 9 | Nevada | 656 | 20.1 | $129k | $29,362 | 21.1 |
| 10 | Wyoming* | 127 | 21.6 | $82k | $29,531 | 145.0 |
| 11 | Alabama | 740 | 14.3 | $153k | $31,754 | 15.0 |
| 12 | Ohio | 2,718 | 22.9 | $177k | $28,476 | 15.5 |
| 13 | Utah | 959 | 27.4 | $112k | $24,906 | 23.8 |
| 14 | New Mexico | 362 | 17.0 | $107k | $29,671 | 20.5 |
| 15 | Louisiana | 699 | 15.2 | $124k | $30,811 | 17.7 |
| 16 | Georgia | 2,563 | 22.9 | $136k | $32,624 | 24.8 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 675 | 16.5 | $119k | $28,731 | 16.9 |
| 18 | Arizona | 1,711 | 22.6 | $156k | $32,073 | 20.4 |
| 19 | Michigan | 2,170 | 21.4 | $147k | $28,689 | 16.5 |
| 20 | Maryland | 1,481 | 23.6 | $192k | $32,997 | 17.3 |
| 21 | West Virginia | 277 | 15.7 | $131k | $26,763 | 10.4 |
| 22 | Idaho | 403 | 20.1 | $140k | $30,695 | 18.2 |
| 23 | Arkansas | 453 | 14.7 | $110k | $28,302 | 14.6 |
| 24 | South Dakota | 160 | 17.3 | $162k | $32,892 | 14.3 |
| 25 | Indiana | 1,438 | 20.8 | $153k | $29,745 | 14.2 |
| 26 | Kansas | 654 | 22.0 | $162k | $30,917 | 14.4 |
| 27 | North Carolina | 2,226 | 20.1 | $150k | $34,244 | 17.9 |
| 28 | South Carolina | 1,052 | 19.2 | $141k | $34,816 | 18.7 |
| 29 | Florida | 7,534 | 32.2 | $116k | $30,808 | 30.3 |
| 30 | Oregon | 800 | 18.7 | $128k | $31,873 | 14.9 |
| 31 | Alaska | 143 | 19.3 | $129k | $34,046 | 17.2 |
| 32 | Illinois | 3,346 | 26.3 | $162k | $32,413 | 15.6 |
| 33 | Minnesota | 1,521 | 26.3 | $182k | $32,951 | 13.2 |
| 34 | Wisconsin | 1,592 | 26.7 | $159k | $30,360 | 13.3 |
| 35 | California | 8,733 | 22.1 | $125k | $32,253 | 15.3 |
| 36 | Colorado | 2,029 | 34.1 | $144k | $36,241 | 27.5 |
| 37 | Connecticut | 1,049 | 28.5 | $173k | $32,933 | 14.8 |
| 38 | Hawaii | 335 | 23.2 | $146k | $33,256 | 12.9 |
| 39 | New Hampshire | 403 | 28.6 | $189k | $35,319 | 14.0 |
| 40 | Virginia | 2,602 | 29.5 | $165k | $35,171 | 16.9 |
| 41 | New Jersey | 3,727 | 39.2 | $160k | $28,151 | 18.2 |
| 42 | Vermont | 144 | 22.2 | $149k | $36,294 | 12.8 |
| 43 | Iowa | 796 | 24.6 | $134k | $32,938 | 11.6 |
| 44 | Maine | 293 | 20.9 | $158k | $38,640 | 10.7 |
| 45 | Washington | 2,168 | 27.2 | $168k | $40,147 | 14.7 |
| 46 | Pennsylvania | 4,846 | 37.0 | $150k | $28,477 | 12.8 |
| 47 | North Dakota | 240 | 30.1 | $140k | $32,750 | 12.2 |
| 48 | Nebraska | 596 | 29.7 | $123k | $31,269 | 12.1 |
| 49 | New York | 7,124 | 35.9 | $119k | $30,377 | 16.2 |
| 50 | Massachusetts | 2,569 | 36.0 | $180k | $34,428 | 11.9 |
| 51 | Rhode Island | 387 | 34.8 | $105k | $30,849 | 11.3 |
What the Numbers Don’t Capture
No dataset measures licensing difficulty, insurance mandates, or fee structures — and those vary enormously by state. Our state-by-state guides cover exactly that layer: click any state in the table for its full startup walkthrough, or see the overall Best States to Start a Business index and the monthly business formation statistics this index draws on.
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Wherever you land, the first filing is the same
Every state on this list starts a salon the same way: form the business entity. Bizee files your LLC — you pick the package and pay the state fee in any of the 51 jurisdictions ranked here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best state to start a salon in 2026?
By our four-factor Census-data index, the top five are Delaware (#1), Mississippi (#2), Tennessee (#3), District of Columbia (#4), Montana (#5). Delaware leads on the combination of market saturation, payroll per firm, labor cost, and new-business momentum.
Which state has the least salon competition?
Mississippi has the thinnest market, with 10.3 establishments per 100,000 residents in NAICS 812112 — versus 39.2 in New Jersey, the most saturated.
Where does this data come from?
Every number is from the U.S. Census Bureau: County Business Patterns 2023 for establishments, employment, and payroll; Business Formation Statistics (Aug-2025 through Jul-2026) for new business applications; and 2024 population estimates for per-capita rates.
Sources
| Data | Source | Vintage |
|---|---|---|
| Establishments, employment, payroll by industry and state | U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns | 2023 |
| Business applications by state | U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics | Aug-2025 through Jul-2026 |
| State population | U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates (NST-EST2024) | 2024 |