How Many Plumbers Are in the US?
111,207 employer plumbing businesses in the United States in 2023 — 3.3 for every 10,000 residents. 77% of them have fewer than ten employees.
The number, and what it counts
A business with at least one paid employee, in the Census industry code for this trade.
The figure comes from the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns, which every year counts establishments by industry and location from payroll tax records. It is the most reliable public count of businesses in the country, and it has one important boundary: it counts employer businesses. A plumbing business that is one person with no payroll — and in some trades that is a large share — is not in this number. Treat 111,207 as a floor for the trade, not a ceiling.
The industry code is NAICS 238220, Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors. The Census groups plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors under one code, NAICS 238220. The count on this page and on the HVAC page is the same figure and describes both trades together.
Of the 111,207, 64,871 — 58% — have fewer than five employees, and 77% have fewer than ten. This is a trade of small businesses.
Plumbers by city
The seven largest US metros, densest first. Maricopa County leads at 3.5 per 10,000; Philadelphia is lowest at 1.5.
| Census scope | Plumbers | Per 10,000 residents | Under 10 employees | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maricopa CountyPhoenix area | 1,604 | 3.5 | 75% | 1 of 7 |
| New York | 2,455 | 3.0 | 76% | 2 of 7 |
| Los Angeles CountyLos Angeles area | 2,765 | 2.9 | 83% | 3 of 7 |
| Cook CountyChicago area | 1,377 | 2.7 | 81% | 4 of 7 |
| Bexar CountySan Antonio area | 523 | 2.5 | 73% | 5 of 7 |
| Harris CountyHouston area | 1,187 | 2.5 | 73% | 6 of 7 |
| Philadelphia | 225 | 1.5 | 82% | 7 of 7 |
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 238220 (Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors), and Population Estimates 2023. Counts are employer establishments — businesses with at least one paid employee. Sole operators with no payroll are not included.
The first column is what the Census actually measured. Business counts are published by county, not by city, so for Houston the number is Harris County, for Chicago it is Cook County, and so on. Two of the seven — Philadelphia and New York City — are coterminous with their counties, so there the city name is exact. Density is county establishments divided by county population, so both sides of the fraction cover the same ground.
Reading the table
Density says more than the raw count. A big county has more of everything.
The national average is 3.3 plumbing businesses per 10,000 residents. Maricopa County is 5% above it; Philadelphia is 56% below. The spread between the densest and the sparsest of these seven is roughly 2.4×, which is typical for a local-service trade: the count tracks households and commercial activity, not population alone.
The "under 10 employees" column is the one that matters if you are sizing a market to sell into. It is the share of the trade made up of independent operators who make their own decisions. Where it is high, the trade is fragmented; where it is lower, larger firms or chains hold more of it.