How Big Are Plumbing Businesses? Employee and Revenue Size Data for 112,000 Firms
The short answer
Most plumbing and HVAC companies are small: 58.3 percent of the 111,207 employer establishments had fewer than five employees in 2023, according to County Business Patterns, and the median firm operating all year had revenue in the $500,000 to $999,999 band in the 2022 Economic Census. At the other end, 235 firms with $100 million or more in revenue took in 25.6 percent of the industry’s money.
What we measured and found
Two Census Bureau sources describe the size of plumbing businesses. County Business Patterns counts every employer establishment by number of employees each year. The Economic Census, every five years, groups whole firms by employees and by annual revenue and reports the money each group earns. Together they answer the questions owners and buyers ask: how big is a typical plumbing company, and where does the revenue sit? Whether the largest firms are gaining share is examined in are plumbing companies consolidating.
| Employees per establishment (2023) | Establishments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 5 | 64,871 | 58.3% |
| 5 to 9 | 20,587 | 18.5% |
| 10 to 19 | 13,148 | 11.8% |
| 20 to 49 | 8,384 | 7.5% |
| 50 to 99 | 2,561 | 2.3% |
| 100 to 249 | 1,300 | 1.2% |
| 250 to 499 | 256 | 0.2% |
| 500 to 999 | 76 | 0.1% |
| 1,000 or more | 24 | 0.0% |
Source: Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 238220 (plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors).
| Firm annual revenue (2022, firms operating all year) | Firms | Share of firms | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Less than $100,000 | 8,407 | 9.2% | 0.2% |
| Of $100,000 to $249,999 | 15,672 | 17.2% | 0.9% |
| Of $250,000 to $499,999 | 12,694 | 13.9% | 1.5% |
| Of $500,000 to $999,999 | 16,419 | 18.0% | 4.2% |
| Of $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 20,041 | 22.0% | 11.0% |
| Of $2,500,000 to $4,999,999 | 8,874 | 9.7% | 10.7% |
| Of $5,000,000 to $9,999,999 | 4,639 | 5.1% | 11.2% |
| Of $10,000,000 to $24,999,999 | 2,855 | 3.1% | 15.0% |
| Of $25,000,000 to $99,999,999 | 1,308 | 1.4% | 19.7% |
| Of $100,000,000 or more | 235 | 0.3% | 25.6% |
| Of $500,000 to $999,999 | 859 | 0.9% | 0.2% |
Source: Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, firm size dataset (ECNSIZE2022), NAICS 238220, firms operated for the entire year.
Measured values, sourced
- Employer establishments, 2023: 111,207; with fewer than 5 employees 64,871; with 1,000 or more 24. Source: CBP 2023.
- Firms in 2022: 14; operating all year 91,144 with revenue $288.8 billion. Source: Economic Census.
- Average revenue per full-year firm: $3.17 million; median firm in the $500,000 to $999,999 band. Source: calculated from Economic Census.
- Firms with $100 million or more in revenue: 235, $73.9 billion. Source: Economic Census.
- Legal form: S-corporations 73,389 firms; individual proprietorships with employees 15,078. Source: Economic Census.
- Firms with 500 or more employees: 136, 20.5 percent of revenue. Source: Economic Census.
Derived measures
Six in ten firms earn under $1 million
Formula. Share of full-year firms with annual revenue below $1 million.
Calculation. 53,192 of 91,144 firms = 58.4 percent, earning 6.8 percent of revenue.
Finding. The typical plumbing or HVAC company with employees is a small business with a handful of staff and under a million dollars in sales. Self-employed operators without employees, counted separately, are smaller still (see self-employed plumbers).
Limitations. Revenue size counts firms, which may own several locations; establishment counts in CBP count locations.
The average is misleading
Formula. Average revenue per full-year firm against the median band.
Calculation. Mean $3.17 million; the median firm sits in the $500,000 to $999,999 band.
Finding. A few hundred very large firms pull the average up. Benchmarks quoting ‘average plumbing company revenue’ describe almost no actual company.
Limitations. The Census Bureau publishes size bands, not exact medians.
Headline measurements
- 58 percent of plumbing/HVAC establishments have fewer than 5 employees.
- The median firm’s revenue is in the $500,000 to $999,999 band.
- 235 firms with $100M+ revenue earn 26 percent of the industry’s money.
Download the data
Economic Census 2022 by employment and revenue size, and CBP 2023 by employment size. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Attribution: The Plumbing Brief.
Plumbing/HVAC firm and establishment size distributions (CSV)
How this report was built
Methodology
Source. US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census and 2017 Economic Census, files downloaded from www2.census.gov on 4 October 2026. Firm size dataset ECNSIZE2022 (firms operated for the entire year, by employment size and by revenue size, and by legal form) and County Business Patterns 2023 US file (cbp23us) employment size classes for NAICS 238220.
Derived figures. Shares, growth rates, per-firm and per-employee values are calculated by The Plumbing Brief from the published tables.
Retrieval date. 4 October 2026.
Data limitations
- The Economic Census counts employer establishments only. Businesses with no employees are covered by Nonemployer Statistics, reported separately.
- NAICS 238220 combines plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors. The kind-of-business split classifies each establishment by its primary activity; a plumbing-primary shop’s HVAC work is counted as plumbing-contractor revenue and vice versa.
- Firms not operated for the whole year are excluded from the size tables, as in the Census Bureau’s own presentation.
- CBP size classes use mid-March employment.
Source quality ranking
Tier 1. US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census (construction sector files EC2223KOB, EC2223BASIC and the firm-size and product-line datasets ECNSIZE2022 and ECNNAPCSIND2022) and the 2017 Economic Census equivalents, downloaded from www2.census.gov.
Tier 2. None used. Tier 3. None used.
Excluded. Paid market-research estimates of plumbing industry size, which do not publish their method and differ widely from one another.
Briefing note
58.3 percent of the 111,207 US plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractor establishments had fewer than five employees in 2023, according to Census Bureau County Business Patterns, and 58.4 percent of firms operating all of 2022 had revenue under $1 million, according to the 2022 Economic Census. An analysis by The Plumbing Brief found that the 235 firms with $100 million or more in revenue earned 25.6 percent of the industry’s money.
Story angles
- The typical plumbing company has fewer than five workers
- Six in ten plumbing firms sell less than $1 million a year
- Big firms, big share: the top of the plumbing market
- What an ‘average’ plumbing company really looks like
Questions about the measurements
How much revenue does a plumbing company make? The median plumbing/HVAC firm had revenue in the $500,000 to $999,999 band in 2022; the mean was $3.17 million, pulled up by large firms.
How many employees does a typical plumbing company have? Fewer than five: 58.3 percent of establishments in 2023.
How many large plumbing companies are there? 24 establishments have 1,000 or more employees; 235 firms have $100 million or more in revenue.
Are most plumbing businesses S-corporations? Yes. S-corporations are the most common legal form among employer firms in the industry.
Does this include one-person businesses? No. Businesses without employees are covered separately by Nonemployer Statistics.
How to cite this report
The Plumbing Brief, “How Big Are Plumbing Businesses? Employee and Revenue Size Data for 112,000 Firms”, https://theplumbingbrief.com/how-big-are-plumbing-businesses/, accessed [date].
Last reviewed: 2026-10-04.
