Is Pest Control Recession-Proof? 25 Years of US Industry Revenue Data
Short answer: Yes, on the only national revenue record that exists. US pest control revenue rose in all 24 year-over-year changes from 1998 to 2022, including 2008, 2009 and 2020. Adjusted for inflation it grew 0.8 percent across the 2007 to 2009 recession, while landscaping services fell 16.1 percent.
What the record shows
- US pest control revenue recorded zero nominal annual declines across 24 year-over-year changes from 1998 to 2022 (Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey, series REVEF56171ALLEST).
- Of seven US service industries with comparable 1998 to 2022 revenue series, only pest control and health care had no down year. Landscaping fell in 2008 and 2009, repair and maintenance fell in 2008, 2009 and 2020.
- Across the Great Recession window of 2007 to 2009, inflation-adjusted pest control revenue rose 0.8 percent. Landscaping services fell 16.1 percent over the same two years.
- Pest control’s deepest single-year inflation-adjusted decline during the housing collapse was 1.3 percent, in 2008.
- In 2020, inflation-adjusted pest control revenue rose 6.1 percent, the largest increase of the seven industries examined, ahead of health care at essentially flat.
- Pest control combined that stability with growth: a 3.68 percent average annual real growth rate from 1998 to 2022, above health care’s 2.80 percent.
- Nominal revenue grew 4.27 times over the period, from $5.027 billion in 1998 to $21.466 billion in 2022.
- Two limits matter. The revenue series ends at 2022 and was last updated on 31 January 2024. Pest control’s worst real year on record is 2022, at minus 2.76 percent, and that decline reflects inflation outrunning a 5.0 percent nominal gain rather than falling demand.
Why this question has never been answered
In short: The claim that pest control is recession-resistant circulates constantly among investors and operators, but no published analysis tests it against a revenue time series, because the series that would settle it is not where anyone looks for it.
Search for the size of the US pest control industry and the results give a single number from a single year. The National Pest Management Association reports member-surveyed growth rates. IBISWorld, Grand View Research, Fortune Business Insights and Statista sell market-size reports from behind paywalls. Pest Management Professional reported in April 2026 that the US structural pest control industry generated $13.416 billion in total service revenue, a $762 million increase on the prior year. None of these publishes a history.
The history exists. The Census Bureau’s Service Annual Survey has measured revenue for NAICS 561710, Exterminating and Pest Control Services, since 1998. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis republishes it as series REVEF56171ALLEST. The direct Census table path for the Service Annual Survey returns an error, which is the most likely reason the series goes uncited: it is easier to find a press release than a 25-year data file.
That series is the basis for everything below. Every comparator industry is drawn from the same survey, in the same units, over the same years, which is what makes the comparison legitimate.
The figures, with sources
- Zero down years. US pest control revenue increased in every one of the 24 year-over-year changes from 1998 through 2022. (Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey, via FRED REVEF56171ALLEST, accessed 23 September 2026.)
- $5.027 billion to $21.466 billion. Nominal US pest control revenue grew 4.27 times between 1998 and 2022. (Same source.)
- 2.38 times in real terms. Measured in constant 2022 dollars, revenue rose from $9.024 billion in 1998 to $21.466 billion in 2022. (Author calculation from Service Annual Survey revenue and CPI-U annual averages, FRED CPIAUCSL.)
- Plus 0.8 percent through the Great Recession. Real US pest control revenue rose 0.8 percent between 2007 and 2009. (Author calculation, same inputs.)
- Minus 16.1 percent for landscaping. Real US landscaping services revenue fell 16.1 percent between 2007 and 2009. (Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey, via FRED REVEF56173ALLEST.)
- Minus 10.5 percent for repair and maintenance. Real US repair and maintenance revenue fell 10.5 percent between 2007 and 2009. (Via FRED REVEF811ALLEST.)
- Worst recession year: minus 1.3 percent. Pest control’s deepest single-year real decline during the housing collapse was 1.33 percent, recorded in 2008. (Author calculation.)
- Best performer in 2020. Real US pest control revenue rose 6.1 percent between 2019 and 2020, the largest gain among the seven industries examined. (Author calculation.)
- Four negative real years in 24. Real pest control revenue declined in 2007, 2008, 2011 and 2022, by 0.38, 1.33, 1.36 and 2.76 percent respectively. (Author calculation.)
- Faster than health care. Real US pest control revenue grew at a 3.68 percent compound annual rate from 1998 to 2022, against 2.80 percent for health care and social assistance. (Author calculation from FRED REVEF56171ALLEST and REVEF62ALLEST.)
- Not a share-shift story. Pest control accounted for 9.0 percent of US Services to Buildings and Dwellings revenue in 2004, 9.3 percent in 2009 and 8.8 percent in 2022. (Author calculation across FRED REVEF56171, 56172, 56173, 56174 and 56179 ALLEST.)
- Revenue per establishment rose 49.9 percent. US pest control revenue per private establishment grew from $843,743 in 2014 to $1,264,715 in 2022. (Author calculation from Service Annual Survey revenue and BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages establishment counts, NAICS 561710, private ownership.)
- 17,933 establishments as of 2026 Q1. US private pest control establishments numbered 17,933 in the first quarter of 2026, up 2.4 percent year over year. (BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 561710, own_code 5.)
The record: 25 years of US pest control revenue
In short: Nominal revenue rose every year. Real revenue fell in four years, never by more than 2.8 percent, and the deepest decline came in 2022 from inflation rather than from lost demand.
| Year | Nominal revenue ($M) | Real revenue (2022 $M) | Real change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 5,027 | 9,024 | n/a |
| 1999 | 5,412 | 9,507 | +5.35% |
| 2000 | 5,723 | 9,726 | +2.30% |
| 2001 | 6,067 | 10,028 | +3.11% |
| 2002 | 6,597 | 10,733 | +7.03% |
| 2003 | 7,186 | 11,428 | +6.48% |
| 2004 | 7,630 | 11,819 | +3.42% |
| 2005 | 8,118 | 12,166 | +2.93% |
| 2006 | 8,483 | 12,316 | +1.23% |
| 2007 | 8,693 | 12,268 | −0.38% |
| 2008 | 8,905 | 12,106 | −1.33% |
| 2009 | 9,071 | 12,371 | +2.19% |
| 2010 | 9,444 | 12,672 | +2.44% |
| 2011 | 9,608 | 12,500 | −1.36% |
| 2012 | 10,307 | 13,137 | +5.10% |
| 2013 | 10,857 | 13,638 | +3.81% |
| 2014 | 11,280 | 13,944 | +2.24% |
| 2015 | 11,545 | 14,255 | +2.23% |
| 2016 | 12,173 | 14,842 | +4.12% |
| 2017 | 13,089 | 15,626 | +5.28% |
| 2018 | 14,886 | 17,348 | +11.02% |
| 2019 | 16,390 | 18,760 | +8.14% |
| 2020 | 17,612 | 19,910 | +6.13% |
| 2021 | 20,442 | 22,075 | +10.88% |
| 2022 | 21,466 | 21,466 | −2.76% |
Source: US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey, Total Revenue for Exterminating and Pest Control Services, All Establishments, Employer Firms, via FRED series REVEF56171ALLEST. Real values deflated by CPI-U annual averages (FRED CPIAUCSL), 2022 base. Accessed 23 September 2026.
What it means. The nominal column is the part that surprises people. Revenue did not stall in 2008 and it did not stall in 2009. It rose from $8.693 billion in 2007 to $8.905 billion in 2008 to $9.071 billion in 2009, through the worst residential construction collapse in modern American history, in an industry that sells most of its work to homeowners.
What limits it. Nominal growth during a period of positive inflation is a weak test on its own, which is why the real column is there. In real terms 2007 and 2008 were both mildly negative. The honest statement is not that pest control was untouched by the recession. It is that the touch was shallow, and that the industry’s peers took far more damage.
The comparison that makes the finding meaningful
In short: Pest control sits inside a four-digit industry family, Services to Buildings and Dwellings, alongside janitorial, landscaping and carpet cleaning. All four are measured by the same survey. Only pest control grew in real terms through the Great Recession.
A single industry rising through a recession proves little without a control group. The Service Annual Survey supplies one. NAICS 5617, Services to Buildings and Dwellings, contains pest control alongside four siblings that sell comparable discretionary or semi-discretionary services to the same residential and commercial customers. Repair and maintenance provides a second home-services comparator. Health care and social assistance provides the conventional benchmark for defensive revenue.
| Industry (NAICS) | 2007 to 2009 real | 2019 to 2020 real | 2000 to 2002 real | Nominal down years, 1998 to 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance (62) | +5.7% | −0.0% | +11.9% | 0 |
| Other services to buildings and dwellings (561790) | +1.4% | −0.1% | +21.4% | 3 |
| Exterminating and pest control (561710) | +0.8% | +6.1% | +10.4% | 0 |
| Janitorial services (561720) | −2.7% | +1.9% | +5.1% | 1 |
| Carpet and upholstery cleaning (561740) | −3.8% | +5.8% | +5.7% | 5 |
| Repair and maintenance (811) | −10.5% | −6.0% | +0.5% | 3 |
| Landscaping services (561730) | −16.1% | +2.1% | n/a | 2 |
Source: US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey, via FRED series REVEF56171ALLEST, REVEF56172ALLEST, REVEF56173ALLEST, REVEF56174ALLEST, REVEF56179ALLEST, REVEF811ALLEST and REVEF62ALLEST. Real changes calculated by the author using CPI-U annual averages. Landscaping series begins in 2004, so the 2000 to 2002 window is unavailable for it. Accessed 23 September 2026.
What it means. Pest control and landscaping are the cleanest pair in the table. Both are sold largely to homeowners. Both are recurring services on a seasonal cycle. Both sit in the same four-digit NAICS family and are measured by the same survey instrument. Between 2007 and 2009 one grew 0.8 percent and the other lost 16.1 percent, a gap of 16.9 percentage points. The most plausible reading is that homeowners treat lawn care as deferrable and treat an active infestation as not deferrable.
What limits it. Three things. The landscaping series begins in 2004, so its recession record is shorter. Other services to buildings and dwellings outperformed pest control in two of the three windows, so pest control is not the single most stable line in its own family. And a two-year window is a coarse instrument: janitorial services actually grew 2.7 percent in 2008 before losing 5.2 percent in 2009, a pattern the window totals conceal.
Stability and growth, measured together
In short: Pest control is the only industry in this set that pairs a health-care-grade downside record with an above-health-care growth rate.
| Industry | Years observed | Negative real years | Worst real year | Real CAGR | Real multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health care and social assistance | 25 | 2 | −2.5% | 2.80% | 1.94x |
| Exterminating and pest control | 25 | 4 | −2.8% | 3.68% | 2.38x |
| Janitorial services | 25 | 4 | −5.2% | 3.04% | 2.05x |
| Other services to buildings and dwellings | 25 | 5 | −6.6% | 4.66% | 2.99x |
| Repair and maintenance | 25 | 7 | −6.5% | 1.15% | 1.32x |
| Carpet and upholstery cleaning | 25 | 9 | −8.4% | 1.02% | 1.27x |
| Landscaping services | 19 | 2 | −10.8% | 4.04% | 2.04x |
Source: author calculations from US Census Bureau Service Annual Survey revenue via FRED, deflated by CPI-U annual averages. Landscaping observed 2004 to 2022, all others 1998 to 2022. Accessed 23 September 2026.
What it means. Read the worst-real-year column and the real CAGR column together. Health care has the shallowest worst year at minus 2.5 percent but grew at 2.80 percent a year. Other services to buildings and dwellings grew fastest at 4.66 percent but took a 6.6 percent hit in its worst year. Pest control’s worst year is 2.8 percent, within 0.3 points of health care, while its growth rate is 0.88 points above it. No other industry in the set holds both positions.
What limits it. Landscaping records only two negative real years, fewer than pest control’s four, which shows why a count of down years is not sufficient on its own. Landscaping’s declines were simply much deeper when they came. Any assessment needs frequency and depth together, which is why both columns appear above.
Where the industry is now
In short: The revenue series stops at 2022. From 2023 onward the current measures are establishment counts, employment and wages, and all three are still rising.
The Service Annual Survey revenue series for pest control was last updated on 31 January 2024 and its final observation is 2022. For anything more recent, the available federal measure is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which carries NAICS 561710 through the first quarter of 2026.
| Measure | 2024 annual | 2026 Q1 | Change, 2026 Q1 on 2025 Q1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private establishments | 17,606 | 17,933 | +2.4% |
| Employment | 152,174 | 151,410 | +1.9% |
| Average weekly wage | $1,101 | $1,174 | +5.9% |
| Total wages | $8.716 billion | $2.311 billion (quarter) | +7.9% |
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 561710, private ownership. Employment for 2026 Q1 is the average of the three monthly levels. Accessed 23 September 2026.
What it means. Establishment counts, employment and wages have all continued to rise since the revenue series ended. That is consistent with continued revenue growth but does not measure it.
What limits it. Employment is not revenue. A firm can add staff into falling margins. Anyone citing the 2023 to 2026 period should say they are citing employment and wages, not revenue.
Three derived measures, with formulas
1. The Recession Gap
Definition. The difference in inflation-adjusted revenue change between pest control and a comparator industry across a defined recession window.
Formula. Recession Gap = [(Real revenueend / Real revenuestart) − 1] for pest control, minus the same quantity for the comparator, where Real revenuet = Nominal revenuet × (CPI2022 / CPIt) and CPIt is the mean of the 12 monthly CPI-U values for year t.
Inputs. FRED REVEF56171ALLEST and the comparator series; FRED CPIAUCSL.
Result. For 2007 to 2009: 16.9 percentage points against landscaping, 11.3 against repair and maintenance, 4.6 against carpet cleaning, 3.5 against janitorial. Against health care the gap is negative 4.9 points.
Limitations. Two-year windows hide within-window ordering. The metric measures revenue, not profit or survival. It is sensitive to the window chosen: moving the endpoint to 2010 changes every figure.
2. The Downside Depth Ratio
Definition. An industry’s real compound annual growth rate divided by the absolute value of its worst single-year real decline, so that a higher value means more growth earned per unit of worst-case drawdown.
Formula. Downside Depth Ratio = Real CAGR (percent) / |Worst single-year real change (percent)|.
Inputs. Same series as above.
Result. Pest control 1.33 (3.68 / 2.76). Health care 1.12 (2.80 / 2.50). Janitorial 0.58. Other services to buildings and dwellings 0.71. Landscaping 0.37. Repair and maintenance 0.18. Carpet cleaning 0.12. Pest control ranks first of the seven.
Limitations. A single worst year is a thin basis for a denominator and is sensitive to one observation. Pest control’s worst year, 2022, was an inflation artifact rather than a demand shock, which flatters comparators whose worst years were genuine demand events. Using the second-worst year instead would move pest control’s denominator to 1.36 and its ratio to 2.71, strengthening the result, which is why the more conservative version is reported here.
3. Revenue per establishment
Definition. National pest control revenue divided by the number of private pest control establishments in the same year.
Formula. Revenue per establishment = Service Annual Survey revenue for NAICS 561710 / QCEW annual average private establishments for NAICS 561710.
Inputs. FRED REVEF56171ALLEST; BLS QCEW annual files 2014 to 2022, own_code 5.
Result. $843,743 in 2014, rising to $1,264,715 in 2022, an increase of 49.9 percent in nominal terms. Revenue per employee rose from $107,910 to $148,873 over the same period.
Limitations. The numerator and denominator come from different collections with different universes. The Service Annual Survey covers employer firms; QCEW covers establishments covered by unemployment insurance. The two do not align exactly, so the level should be read as an order of magnitude and the trend as the usable signal. This calculation gives $148,873 revenue per employee for 2022, against $139,825 derived from Census SUSB receipts on our pest control cost structure analysis. Both are defensible. They differ because the revenue measures and the employment universes differ, which is exactly why a single industry can be described by several numbers.
Download the data
The tables in this report are published as CSV files under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. You may republish, remix and build on them, including commercially, with attribution to The Pest Control Brief and a link to this page.
- US pest control revenue, 1998 to 2022, nominal and inflation-adjusted (CSV, 24 rows)
- Real revenue change through the 2007 to 2009 recession, seven industries (CSV, 7 rows)
- Inflation-adjusted revenue indexed to 2004 = 100, three industries (CSV, 19 rows)
How to cite this report
The Pest Control Brief, “Is Pest Control Recession-Proof? 25 Years of US Industry Revenue Data”, 2 October 2026. https://thepestcontrolbrief.com/pest-control-recession-proof/
References
- US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey. Total Revenue for Exterminating and Pest Control Services, All Establishments, Employer Firms. Republished by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis as series REVEF56171ALLEST. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/REVEF56171ALLEST. Series last updated 31 January 2024. Accessed 23 September 2026.
- US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey. Total Revenue for Janitorial Services, series REVEF56172ALLEST. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/REVEF56172ALLEST. Accessed 23 September 2026.
- US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey. Total Revenue for Landscaping Services, series REVEF56173ALLEST. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/REVEF56173ALLEST. Accessed 23 September 2026.
- US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey. Total Revenue for Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning Services, series REVEF56174ALLEST. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/REVEF56174ALLEST. Accessed 23 September 2026.
- US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey. Total Revenue for Other Services to Buildings and Dwellings, series REVEF56179ALLEST. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/REVEF56179ALLEST. Accessed 23 September 2026.
- US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey. Total Revenue for Repair and Maintenance, series REVEF811ALLEST. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/REVEF811ALLEST. Accessed 23 September 2026.
- US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey. Total Revenue for Health Care and Social Assistance, series REVEF62ALLEST. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/REVEF62ALLEST. Accessed 23 September 2026.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, All Items, series CPIAUCSL. fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL. Accessed 23 September 2026.
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 561710, private ownership. Open industry endpoint: data.bls.gov/cew/data/api/2024/a/industry/561710.csv and the 2026 first-quarter file at the same path. Accessed 23 September 2026.
- Pest Management Professional. “US structural pest control market grew 6 percent last year”, 1 April 2026. mypmp.net. Accessed 23 September 2026. Cited as a published industry position, not used in any calculation.
- National Pest Management Association. Member-survey growth statements. npmapestworld.org. Accessed 23 September 2026. Cited as a published position, not used in any calculation.
How this was built
Source selection. The revenue series is the Census Bureau’s Service Annual Survey, the only federal collection that measures revenue at the NAICS 561710 level over a long period. It is accessed through FRED because the direct Census table path for this survey returns an error. Comparator industries were chosen on three criteria: measured by the same survey, available over the same years, and selling to a comparable customer base. Health care and social assistance was added as the conventional defensive-revenue benchmark rather than as a peer.
Inclusion and exclusion. Only series with at least 19 continuous annual observations were used. Establishment and employment counts are restricted to private ownership (QCEW own_code 5) to exclude government units. The 2026 Q1 employment figure is the mean of the three monthly employment levels rather than the month-three level alone, because month-three values in small cells are volatile.
Inflation adjustment. Nominal revenue was deflated using annual averages of the monthly CPI-U series (FRED CPIAUCSL), with 2022 as the base year. Only years with 12 monthly observations were used to form an annual average, which excludes 2026 from the deflator.
Handling conflicts. Where two sources give different values for a similar concept, both are reported with their definitions rather than averaged or reconciled into one figure. The revenue-per-employee difference against our SUSB-based analysis is the worked example.
How the estimates were calculated. Every derived figure in this report is reproducible from the three named FRED series and the named QCEW files using the formulas given in the Original Synthesis section. No figure in this report is an author estimate of an unmeasured quantity.
Limitations. The revenue series ends at 2022 and was last updated on 31 January 2024. It covers employer firms and therefore excludes non-employer businesses, which are numerous in this industry. It measures revenue, not profit, and says nothing about margins, failure rates or owner earnings. It is a survey estimate subject to sampling error, and the Census Bureau does not publish confidence intervals in the FRED republication. Recession windows are defined here by calendar year, not by NBER peak and trough dates, because the underlying data is annual. A finding about national revenue does not transfer to any individual firm or local market.
Last reviewed: 23 September 2026.
Sources, by tier
Tier 1, primary government data. US Census Bureau, Service Annual Survey (revenue, NAICS 561710 and comparators), republished by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis as FRED series REVEF56171ALLEST, REVEF56172ALLEST, REVEF56173ALLEST, REVEF56174ALLEST, REVEF56179ALLEST, REVEF811ALLEST and REVEF62ALLEST. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, NAICS 561710. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U, via FRED CPIAUCSL.
Tier 2, trade and association reporting, used for context only. Pest Management Professional, April 2026, on $13.416 billion in US structural pest control service revenue. National Pest Management Association member-survey growth statements. These are cited as published positions, not as the basis of any calculation here.
Tier 3, reputable journalism, used for context only. None of the findings above rests on journalism.
Excluded. Paywalled market-research market-size figures (IBISWorld, Grand View Research, Fortune Business Insights, Custom Market Insights, Market Data Forecast, Statista) were excluded from all calculations because their methodologies are not inspectable and their geographic scope is frequently global rather than US. Forum and social-media figures were excluded. No unsourced blog roundup was used.
For newsrooms
Most quotable statistics
- US pest control revenue did not fall in a single year between 1998 and 2022.
- Inflation-adjusted pest control revenue rose 0.8 percent across the 2007 to 2009 recession, while landscaping services fell 16.1 percent.
- Pest control’s deepest real revenue decline during the housing collapse was 1.3 percent, in 2008.
- Of seven US service industries measured by the same Census survey, only pest control and health care recorded no nominal down year from 1998 to 2022.
- Real pest control revenue grew at 3.68 percent a year from 1998 to 2022, faster than health care and social assistance at 2.80 percent.
Data limitations to quote alongside them
The revenue series ends in 2022. It covers employer firms only. It measures revenue, not profit. Pest control’s worst real year on record is 2022, and that reflects inflation rather than falling demand.
Fields in the published CSV files
Year; nominal revenue (US$ millions); CPI-U annual average; real revenue (constant 2022 US$ millions); real year-over-year change (percent); industry name; NAICS code; FRED series ID; source survey.
Press summary
US pest control industry revenue has not declined in a single year since 1998, according to Census Bureau Service Annual Survey data analysed by The Pest Control Brief. Across the 2007 to 2009 recession, inflation-adjusted pest control revenue rose 0.8 percent. Landscaping services, which sells to the same homeowners and is measured by the same federal survey, lost 16.1 percent over those two years. Repair and maintenance lost 10.5 percent. Of seven service industries examined, only pest control and health care recorded no nominal annual decline between 1998 and 2022. Pest control also grew faster than health care in real terms, at 3.68 percent a year against 2.80 percent. The industry’s deepest single-year real decline during the housing collapse was 1.3 percent, recorded in 2008. The revenue series ends in 2022 and covers employer firms only. Establishment counts reached 17,933 in the first quarter of 2026.
Five headlines editors could use
- Pest control revenue has not fallen once since 1998
- The recession took 16 percent from landscaping and nothing from pest control
- Only two US service industries never had a down year: health care and exterminators
- What 25 years of federal data say about the most defensive trade in home services
- Pest control grew faster than health care and fell less than every building service
Questions readers ask
Is pest control recession-proof?
No industry is recession-proof, but pest control is the most recession-resistant service in this comparison set on the available record. US pest control revenue rose in all 24 year-over-year changes from 1998 to 2022 in nominal terms, and rose 0.8 percent in real terms across the 2007 to 2009 recession.
Did pest control revenue fall in 2008 or 2009?
Not in nominal terms. Revenue rose from $8.693 billion in 2007 to $8.905 billion in 2008 and $9.071 billion in 2009. Adjusted for inflation, 2008 was down 1.33 percent and 2009 was up 2.19 percent.
What happened to pest control revenue in 2020?
Real US pest control revenue rose 6.1 percent between 2019 and 2020, the largest increase among the seven industries examined here.
How big is the US pest control industry?
The Census Service Annual Survey put NAICS 561710 revenue at $21.466 billion in 2022. Other figures in circulation count different things: Pest Management Professional reported $13.416 billion for structural pest control service revenue in 2025, and market-research firms publish larger figures that are often global rather than US. See our US pest control industry statistics page for the definitions.
Is pest control a better business to buy than HVAC or landscaping?
On revenue stability through the 2007 to 2009 recession, pest control outperformed landscaping by 16.9 percentage points and repair and maintenance by 11.3 points. No federal revenue series exists for HVAC contracting at a comparable NAICS level, so that specific comparison cannot be made from this data. Revenue stability is only one input to a purchase decision, and this analysis says nothing about margins or multiples. See our pest control business valuation analysis.
Why does this analysis stop at 2022?
The Service Annual Survey series for pest control has a final observation of 2022 and was last updated on 31 January 2024. More recent federal data exists for employment and wages but not for revenue.
What is a location quotient and is it used here?
A location quotient measures how concentrated an industry is in a place relative to the national average. It is not used in this report, which is national. It is used in our pest control market density index.
Does growing revenue mean growing profits?
No. This report measures revenue only. The Service Annual Survey does not publish profit, and no public dataset reports profit margins at the NAICS 561710 level.
Why is 2022 pest control’s worst year on record?
Nominal revenue rose 5.0 percent in 2022, but CPI-U rose faster, so real revenue fell 2.76 percent. That is an inflation effect, not a decline in work performed.
Where can I get the underlying data?
All seven revenue series and the CPI-U series are free from FRED at the series IDs listed in the source ranking above. The employment data is free from the BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages open API at the NAICS 561710 industry endpoint.
