NAICS 621320 · California overview

Optometry Practices in Butte County

Butte County had 13 Optometry establishments in 2023, ranking 28 of 41 California counties and accounting for 0.5% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
13
Rank 28 of 41 counties
Employees
65
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$5.3M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.6
209,211 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
13
2026Q1
Employment
127
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$1,787
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+18.2%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

1.61 location quotient. Optometry employment in Butte County is about 1.6 times more concentrated than in the United States as a whole.

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 Optometry in Butte County.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-4646.2%
5-9538.5%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 0.0% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202013n/a
202112-1
2022120
202313+1

How this market compares

Butte 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.

Typical0.6 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.6

Close to the state median for this industry. Provision is roughly what the population would predict.

Vs state median
+6%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#28
of 41 counties
Rank by density
#18
of 41 ranked
Since 2020
0%
Change in establishments

Density compares optometry practices provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Butte tracks the California size distribution closely.

Share of establishmentsButteCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer46.2%49.3%-3.1%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target38.5%47.9%-9.5%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing0.0%14.2%-14.2%

What acquirers look at

Blends licensed professional services with high-margin retail optical. Retail revenue is transferable to a non-licensed owner in a way the clinical side is not.

Cities in Butte

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

Other industries in Butte

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.