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County Business Patterns, the Census count of employer businesses, lists 106,249 employer locations in Orange County for 2022. The fifteen trades below are the ones most likely to compete in local search. Each row shows how many locations exist, how many there are for every 10,000 residents, how that compares with the typical county, how many have fewer than 10 staff, how many have 20 or more, and how the count changed since 2017. Sole proprietors do not appear, so the true crowding in trades such as landscaping or remodeling is higher than the table shows.
The commuter pattern in this county makes the density number more useful than it is in a single-city market. A customer in Newport Beach can reach a dentist, a roofer or a lawyer in Irvine, Costa Mesa or Santa Ana without much effort, so a trade that is crowded across the county is crowded in every city you might name. For any Orange County business landscape, the competing field is the freeway network, not a city line, and the same logic holds for OC businesses of every trade.
The full table
| Trade | Locations | Per 10,000 residents | Versus typical county | Under 10 staff | With 20+ staff | Change since 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential remodelers | 1,311 | 4.2 | 1.3 times | 89 of 100 | 53 | +26.5 percent |
| Roofing contractors | 238 | 0.8 | 0.9 times | 79 of 100 | 25 | +33 percent |
| Electrical contractors | 940 | 3 | 1.3 times | 74 of 100 | 133 | +6.3 percent |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 1,011 | 3.2 | 1 times | 75 of 100 | 118 | +3.9 percent |
| Insurance agencies and brokerages | 1,984 | 6.3 | 1.8 times | 89 of 100 | 108 | +2.2 percent |
| Real estate agents and brokers | 2,985 | 9.5 | 3.4 times | 97 of 100 | 36 | +38.1 percent |
| Law offices | 2,846 | 9.1 | 3.1 times | 87 of 100 | 174 | +6.7 percent |
| Accounting and CPA firms | 965 | 3.1 | 2.3 times | 88 of 100 | 57 | +7.3 percent |
| Janitorial services | 616 | 2 | 1.1 times | 74 of 100 | 87 | +22 percent |
| Landscaping services | 739 | 2.4 | 0.7 times | 71 of 100 | 134 | +1.4 percent |
| Physicians offices | 3,752 | 12 | 2.9 times | 86 of 100 | 216 | -0.5 percent |
| Dentists | 2,815 | 9 | 3.1 times | 86 of 100 | 52 | +5.3 percent |
| Full-service restaurants | 2,946 | 9.4 | 1.4 times | 41 of 100 | 1,063 | +4.6 percent |
| General automotive repair | 853 | 2.7 | 1 times | 92 of 100 | 11 | +5.4 percent |
| Beauty salons | 931 | 3 | 1.6 times | 89 of 100 | 21 | +18.8 percent |
Census County Business Patterns 2022 (employer locations only, so sole proprietors are not counted) against 2017. Typical county means the median county with 20,000 or more residents.
Four positions
Real estate agents (2,985 locations, 3.4 times the typical density, 38.1 percent up since 2017), dentists (2,815, 3.1 times), law offices (2,846, 3.1 times), accounting firms (965, 2.3 times), insurance agencies (1,984, 1.8 times) and beauty salons (931, 1.6 times). Standing out takes reviews, a precise service page and a Business Profile that says what you do.
Roofing contractors grew 33 percent since 2017, residential remodelers 26.5 percent, janitorial services 22 percent and electrical contractors 6.3 percent. Roofing at 0.9 times the typical density is not yet crowded, but it is filling quickly, which favors early, specific pages for each service and city.
Full-service restaurants have 2,946 locations and 1,063 with 20 or more staff, and only 41 in 100 are small, the only trade in the table where fewer than half are small. Physician offices have 216 large locations, law offices 174, landscaping 134 and electrical 133. Where the big players are many, marketing has to speak to managers and groups as well as individuals.
Landscaping sits at 0.7 times the typical density and roofing at 0.9 times, while plumbing, heating and air-conditioning and general auto repair both sit at about the typical county's density. A business in one of these lanes meets less competition in search than a dentist or an agent does, so clear service pages can get further, faster.
Building
| Year | New residential units authorized |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 7,867 |
| 2022 | 5,938 |
| 2023 | 6,481 |
| 2024 | 6,972 |
| 2025 | 5,254 |
Census Building Permits Survey, new privately owned housing units authorized by permit.
What the permits and prices mean
A median home value of $862,900 and a median rent of $2,248 mean that most owners have a lot invested in their property and are willing to spend on repair, remodeling and care. With 43.5 percent of households renting, there is also a large base of tenants and landlords who buy different services: property management, cleaning, repairs and moving. The permit table shows steady additions, not a rush, so the roofing and remodeling growth recorded since 2017 reflects work on existing homes as much as on new ones.
The Census population estimate fell 1.6 percent between 2020 and 2023, so growth is not coming from more residents. It is coming from owners investing in what they have, and from businesses chasing the same customers. That is a reason to measure a trade by its crowding and its share of large players, not just by the number of homes being built.
Using the table
Look up your own trade and note the number of locations and the density against a typical county.
Above about 2 times the typical county, expect a field where reviews and a precise profile decide who is chosen. Near 1 time, expect room for clear service pages to do more of the work.
A trade with many locations of 20 or more staff has larger competitors. A trade of mostly small firms makes it easier for a single well-run business to stand out.
Fast growth means the field is filling. Specific pages and early reviews matter more when more neighbors arrive each year.
A crowded trade across the county can still have a thin city. We check each city you serve against the calls it produces before adding more.
Business landscape questions
Reading the table is part of the work in every plan, so there is nothing extra to buy. Putting it to use means choosing a plan: RankGuarantee™ for 25 landing pages at $495 a month, Organic Growth from $1,495 a month, or paid ads management from $895 a month with your ad budget on top. We charge no setup fee and ask for no contract.
County Business Patterns, the Census source, covers establishments with paid employees. Sole proprietors, freelancers and many one-person trades do not appear, so landscaping, remodeling, cleaning and beauty services are more crowded than the table shows. Use it to compare trades with each other and the typical county, not as a full headcount.
No. It means competing takes sharper pages, steadier reviews and a Business Profile that is complete and current. Dentists, law offices and real estate agents in Orange County all compete in dense fields, and many still earn calls. The goal is to decide where to stand out, not whether to try.
A raw count of 2,985 real estate locations means little without a yardstick. The typical county is the median among counties with at least 20,000 residents, so a ratio of 3.4 times says the trade is far denser here than usual. It gives a fair way to compare very different trades.
Not necessarily. It shows what happened between two census counts, 2017 and 2022, and says nothing about the months since. It is a useful signal about the direction of a trade, such as roofing and remodeling climbing, but it is not a forecast.
Larger firms usually compete on reputation, scale and many service pages. Check how many peers of your size exist in your trade, then decide whether to cover the whole county or a chosen set of cities. A bigger team can often cover more cities, but each one needs a real page, not a copy.
Indirectly. New homes mean new households that need dentists, insurers, cleaners and restaurants, and the permit table shows steady additions rather than a surge. For a trade like real estate or insurance, the counts tell you more than the permits do.
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Get in Touch
Tell us your trade and the cities you serve, and we will show how crowded your lane is and what that means for the first few months of work. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com.