Hit Business Ideas

Method and sources

Source

U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns (CBP), state files for 2023, 2019 and 2017: www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/datasets/2023/cbp23st.zip, .../2022/cbp22st.zip, .../2019/cbp19st.zip, .../2017/cbp17st.zip, and the 2017 NAICS industry titles published by the Census Bureau. Files downloaded November 2, 2026. CBP 2023 is the newest edition; the state files for 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023 were compared with 2017 (the 2022 and 2023 code lists are identical; 2017 differs from 2023 by 2 of 2,001 codes, none of them among the 12 trades), so counts and change since 2017 compare like with like. Census data products are published by a federal agency for public use; we cite the source on every page and do not imply endorsement.

What is counted

An establishment is a single physical place of business with at least one paid employee in the week of March 12. A chain with 40 shops is 40 establishments. The data excludes self-employed people with no employees (Census publishes them separately in Nonemployer Statistics, not used here), most crop and animal farms, rail, most government and household employers. Real numbers of people working in a trade are therefore higher than shown, especially in trades with many sole operators such as landscaping, barbering and pet care.

Industries

Industries follow the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Each trade page uses one six-digit code: full-service restaurants 722511, snack and nonalcoholic beverage bars 722515, beauty salons 812112, barber shops 812111, plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors 238220, roofing contractors 238160, landscaping services 561730, janitorial services 561720, child day care services 624410, general automotive repair 811111, fitness and recreational sports centers 713940, pet care except veterinary 812910. The Census classifies each business by its main activity, so a cafe that bakes may sit in a different code.

Calculations

  • Change since 2017 = (2023 sites − 2017 sites) / 2017 sites. The U.S. line on charts sums the states that have a value in both years.
  • Average per site = employees / sites.
  • Payroll per employee = annual payroll / employees. Payroll is wages paid by the sites before any owner profit and is not an income estimate.
  • Share of a state's sites = trade sites / all employer sites in the state. Concentration = that share divided by the same share for the whole U.S.
  • Rank is among the 50 states and the District of Columbia by number of sites.
  • The U.S. figure is the sum of the 51 state files.

Limits

  • Employment and payroll carry Census noise infusion (a small deliberate distortion to protect confidentiality), so they are close but not exact. We did not remove the noise.
  • 2017 to 2023 spans the 2020 pandemic.
  • We show counts of places, not companies, owners, revenue or profit.
  • Where the Census published no figure for a state and industry, the explorer says so rather than filling in a number.

Updated: November 2, 2026. Next planned update: when the Census publishes County Business Patterns 2023.