Pest Control Market Density Index: the 5.5x gap between the busiest and thinnest state markets
There were 16,535 pest control establishments in the US in 2023. Florida carries 9.85 for every 100,000 residents, Minnesota 1.80. Across the 50 states, the denser the market the less it pays, at a correlation of -0.59.
The short version. There were 16,535 pest control establishments in the United States in 2023, the most recent year of published Census County Business Patterns data. They are not spread anything like the population. Florida carries 9.85 establishments for every 100,000 residents. Minnesota carries 1.80. Across the 50 states, the denser a market is, the less it pays: the correlation between establishment density and annual payroll per employee is -0.59.
Key findings
- 16,535 establishments, 139,150 employees, $7.44 billion in annual payroll. That is the national footprint of NAICS 561710, Exterminating and Pest Control Services, in 2023.
- The industry added locations while shedding people. Establishments rose by 455 (2.8%) against 2022 while employment fell by 767 (0.5%). Average headcount per establishment dropped from 8.70 to 8.42.
- A 5.5x spread in market density between states. Florida at 9.85 establishments per 100,000 residents against Minnesota at 1.80. Including the District of Columbia, which functions as a single dense urban market served largely from Maryland and Virginia, the spread widens to 17x.
- Density and pay move in opposite directions. Pearson correlation of -0.59 across the 50 states. The densest quartile pays $49,451 per employee per year. The thinnest quartile pays $58,238, a difference of $8,787, or 17.8%.
- Four states hold 39.7% of the industry. Florida, California, Texas and Georgia account for 6,571 of 16,535 establishments.
- This is a small-business industry. An average of 59.4% of establishments in each state employ fewer than five people.
What the number measures
Market density here means the count of pest control establishments in a state divided by that state’s resident population, expressed per 100,000 people. An establishment is a single physical location. A company operating six branches in a state is counted six times, which is the correct treatment when the question is how much local service capacity exists.
Density is a supply measure, not a demand measure. A high figure means a lot of companies are chasing the residents of that state. It does not by itself tell you those residents have more pests, though in practice the two travel together.
The geography of pest pressure shows up in the business register
The top of the table is a map of heat and humidity. Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Georgia occupy eight of the ten densest markets. These are places where subterranean termites are active most of the year, where mosquito season does not really end, and where a homeowner is buying a recurring quarterly contract rather than a single call.
The bottom of the table is the northern tier. Minnesota, North Dakota, Alaska, Michigan, Washington, Connecticut and Vermont all sit below 3.0 establishments per 100,000 residents. Pest work in these states is more seasonal, weighted toward rodents in winter and a compressed insect season in summer, and it supports fewer standalone firms per head.
Original synthesis: the density and pay tradeoff
The finding that does not appear in any industry report we are aware of is what happens to compensation as density rises. We calculated annual payroll per employee for each state from the same Census file, then tested it against density.
The relationship is negative and moderately strong at -0.59. Grouping the 50 states into quartiles by density makes the size of it concrete:
| Quartile by density | States | Establishments | Employees | Annual payroll per employee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Densest 12 states | Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Louisiana and 8 others | 6,127 | 51,866 | $49,451 |
| Thinnest 12 states | Michigan, Alaska, North Dakota, Minnesota and 8 others | 2,300 | 19,110 | $58,238 |
Two mechanisms plausibly drive this, and the data here cannot separate them. The first is competition. Where a homeowner can call fifteen companies, contract prices are harder to hold, and labour is the line item that absorbs it. The second is scarcity of licensed applicators. A thin, cold market has fewer certified technicians available, and the firms that operate there have to pay more to keep the ones they have.
For an operator weighing where to expand, the practical reading is that the states that look most attractive on demand are the states where the labour market is least forgiving on margin. For a technician weighing where to work, the ranking of states by pay is close to the inverse of the ranking by how many employers there are.
The industry added locations and lost people
Between 2022 and 2023 the establishment count rose 2.8% while employment fell 0.5%. Payroll rose 5.7%, faster than headcount, which is consistent with wage growth rather than hiring.
Average employees per establishment fell from 8.70 to 8.42. A single year is not a trend, and we will revisit this when the 2024 file publishes. But the direction is worth naming: more locations, each slightly thinner.
Full table: all 50 states and the District of Columbia
Ranked by establishments per 100,000 residents.
| Rank | State | Establishments per 100,000 | Establishments | Employees | Annual payroll per employee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | 9.85 | 2,301 | 17,524 | $48,640 |
| 2 | Arizona | 7.45 | 565 | 4,914 | $47,047 |
| 3 | South Carolina | 7.43 | 407 | 3,568 | $48,242 |
| 4 | Louisiana | 6.61 | 304 | 2,510 | $48,875 |
| 5 | Alabama | 6.55 | 338 | 3,909 | $46,061 |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 6.54 | 268 | 1,612 | $46,083 |
| 7 | Mississippi | 6.49 | 191 | 1,323 | $47,586 |
| 8 | Georgia | 6.47 | 723 | 8,328 | $53,729 |
| 9 | Kansas | 6.40 | 190 | 1,367 | $49,996 |
| 10 | Nevada | 6.24 | 204 | 1,092 | $53,212 |
| 11 | Utah | 6.05 | 212 | 1,503 | $51,918 |
| 12 | Tennessee | 5.87 | 424 | 4,216 | $51,523 |
| 13 | Arkansas | 5.50 | 170 | 1,970 | $51,332 |
| 14 | Idaho | 5.50 | 110 | 874 | $49,640 |
| 15 | North Carolina | 5.19 | 573 | 6,703 | $50,709 |
| 16 | New Mexico | 5.12 | 109 | 505 | $45,422 |
| 17 | California | 5.03 | 1,984 | 16,819 | $59,890 |
| 18 | Virginia | 4.83 | 426 | 4,425 | $52,592 |
| 19 | Texas | 4.79 | 1,498 | 13,034 | $52,027 |
| 20 | Delaware | 4.66 | 49 | 432 | $58,907 |
| 21 | Missouri | 4.64 | 290 | 2,157 | $51,433 |
| 22 | Nebraska | 4.64 | 93 | 538 | $49,431 |
| 23 | New Jersey | 4.52 | 429 | 3,372 | $57,717 |
| 24 | Iowa | 4.50 | 146 | 818 | $51,544 |
| 25 | Rhode Island | 4.50 | 50 | 333 | $62,718 |
| 26 | Hawaii | 4.08 | 59 | 766 | $55,242 |
| 27 | New Hampshire | 3.97 | 56 | 336 | $62,634 |
| 28 | New York | 3.97 | 788 | 4,808 | $57,533 |
| 29 | Montana | 3.96 | 45 | 121 | $47,868 |
| 30 | Indiana | 3.77 | 261 | 2,169 | $52,467 |
| 31 | Kentucky | 3.77 | 173 | 1,283 | $47,733 |
| 32 | Wyoming | 3.74 | 22 | 67 | $52,015 |
| 33 | Oregon | 3.70 | 158 | 933 | $55,243 |
| 34 | Maine | 3.56 | 50 | 346 | $59,199 |
| 35 | Maryland | 3.56 | 223 | 2,314 | $56,513 |
| 36 | Massachusetts | 3.53 | 252 | 2,420 | $63,879 |
| 37 | South Dakota | 3.46 | 32 | 118 | $61,017 |
| 38 | West Virginia | 3.28 | 58 | 491 | $50,741 |
| 39 | Pennsylvania | 3.23 | 423 | 3,857 | $59,902 |
| 40 | Ohio | 3.18 | 378 | 3,095 | $54,767 |
| 41 | Illinois | 3.11 | 395 | 3,444 | $54,792 |
| 42 | Wisconsin | 3.09 | 184 | 1,121 | $56,661 |
| 43 | Colorado | 3.07 | 183 | 1,182 | $56,696 |
| 44 | Vermont | 2.93 | 19 | 94 | $65,064 |
| 45 | Connecticut | 2.83 | 104 | 877 | $62,544 |
| 46 | Washington | 2.76 | 220 | 2,120 | $60,484 |
| 47 | Michigan | 2.55 | 259 | 1,900 | $60,142 |
| 48 | Alaska | 2.16 | 16 | 62 | $46,919 |
| 49 | North Dakota | 1.88 | 15 | 37 | $56,135 |
| 50 | Minnesota | 1.80 | 104 | 1,321 | $64,117 |
| 51 | District of Columbia | 0.57 | 4 | 22 | $99,182 |
Methodology
Establishment, employment and payroll counts are taken directly from the U.S. Census Bureau’s County Business Patterns 2023 state file (cbp23st.txt), filtered to NAICS code 561710 and legal form of organisation “all”. The prior year figures come from the equivalent 2022 U.S. file (cbp22us.txt) and 2023 U.S. file (cbp23us.txt).
Population denominators are the Census Bureau’s Vintage 2024 state population estimates (NST-EST2024-ALLDATA.csv), field POPESTIMATE2024.
Density is establishments divided by population, multiplied by 100,000. Payroll per employee is annual payroll divided by employment. Correlation is the Pearson product moment coefficient across the 50 states, computed on unweighted state level observations, with the District of Columbia excluded.
Occupational wage figures cited elsewhere on this site come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics programme, May 2025, SOC 37-2021 Pest Control Workers.
Data limitations
- Census and BLS count different populations. County Business Patterns reports 139,150 people employed by pest control establishments, including office, sales and management staff. BLS reports 102,620 people working in the pest control worker occupation, some of whom are employed outside the industry. These figures are not interchangeable and we do not mix them.
- County Business Patterns runs on a lag. The 2023 file is the most recent published as of August 2026. It reflects a mid-March 2023 reference week.
- Establishments are not companies. A national firm with branches inflates the count relative to a market served by single location independents. Density measures service points, not competing brands.
- Population is a crude denominator. Housing stock, the share of detached single family homes, and climate would all sharpen the measure. Population is used here because it is available consistently for every state.
- Payroll per employee is not a wage. It is total annual payroll divided by a March headcount, so seasonal hiring patterns distort it, and it includes non technician staff.
- Correlation is not causation. Density and pay are both associated with climate and with regional cost of living. We report the association and do not claim a causal mechanism.
Frequently asked questions
How many pest control companies are there in the United States?
Census County Business Patterns recorded 16,535 pest control establishments with paid employees in 2023. That counts physical locations, so a multi branch company appears more than once. It also excludes non employer businesses, meaning sole operators with no payroll, which are counted in a separate Census programme.
Which state has the most pest control companies?
Florida, with 2,301 establishments, ahead of California at 1,984 and Texas at 1,498. Adjusted for population, Florida also ranks first at 9.85 establishments per 100,000 residents.
What does the pest control industry pay?
Across the industry as a whole, annual payroll worked out to $53,467 per employee in 2023, a figure that includes office and management staff. For the pest control worker occupation specifically, BLS reported a median annual wage of $45,250 in May 2025.
Is pest control a growing industry?
By establishment count, yes: up 2.8% in 2023. By employment, no: down 0.5% in the same year. Payroll rose 5.7%. The industry is opening locations faster than it is adding people.
Cite this analysis
The Pest Control Brief, “Pest Control Market Density Index: establishments per 100,000 residents by state,” August 2026. Analysis of U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 (NAICS 561710) and Vintage 2024 population estimates.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, state file. www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/datasets/2023/
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2022 and 2023, United States files.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 state population estimates, NST-EST2024-ALLDATA. www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2020-2024/state/totals/
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, SOC 37-2021. bls.gov/oes