NAICS 561790 · California overview

Swimming Pool Cleaning & Maintenance in Alameda County

Alameda County had 38 Pool Service establishments in 2023, ranking 14 of 43 California counties and accounting for 1.7% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
38
Rank 14 of 43 counties
Employees
266
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$14M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.2
1,636,630 residents

More recent reading

BLS QCEW, 2026Q1

The figures above are County Business Patterns, which carries the size distribution but runs about two years behind. The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes quarterly, so this is the same industry roughly 3 years later. The two count different universes, Census counts establishments with paid employees in the March pay period and BLS counts worksites covered by unemployment insurance during the quarter, so the numbers are not directly comparable and either can be the larger.

Establishments
61
2026Q1
Employment
475
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$1,168
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+5.2%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

0.88 location quotient. Pool Service is about as concentrated in Alameda County as it is nationally.

Computed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, not derived here. Above 1.0 means the industry is a larger share of local employment than of national employment.

Establishments by size

Employee-count distribution for Pool Service in Alameda County. 10 of 38 establishments (26%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-42565.8%
5-937.9%
10-19615.8%
20-49410.5%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 8.6% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202035n/a
2021350
202239+4
202338-1

How this market compares

Alameda County against every other county in California on the same measure. The median excludes places under 2,000 residents, where per-capita figures are arithmetically true but analytically useless.

Thinly served0.2 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.5

Well below the state median. Either a genuine gap in provision or a market served from somewhere nearby. Worth checking the neighbouring places below before drawing a conclusion.

Vs state median
-57%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#14
of 43 counties
Rank by density
#42
of 43 ranked
Since 2020
+9%
Change in establishments

Density compares swimming pool cleaning & maintenance provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Alameda is more consolidated than California as a whole: fewer micro-operators and a larger share of businesses with real headcount. Fewer targets, but the ones that exist are more likely to be financeable.

Share of establishmentsAlamedaCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer65.8%72.7%-6.9%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target34.2%24.0%+10.2%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing26.3%9.9%+16.4%

What acquirers look at

Monthly recurring billing with route density economics. California, Arizona, Florida and Texas hold the overwhelming majority of national route volume.

Cities in Alameda

The figures above cover the county as a whole. These are the places within it.

Other industries in Alameda

Sources

  1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns. Establishment counts, employment and annual payroll by NAICS. Retrieved 2026-09-08.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (2026Q1). Quarterly establishment counts and employment for employers covered by unemployment insurance. Retrieved 2026-09-08.