NAICS 811121 · California overview

Automotive Body & Collision Repair in Imperial County

Imperial County had 13 Auto Body establishments in 2023, ranking 32 of 48 California counties and accounting for 0.3% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
13
Rank 32 of 48 counties
Employees
70
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$3.0M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.7
181,411 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
10
2026Q1
Employment
87
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$1,061
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+11.1%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

0.80 location quotient. Auto Body employment in Imperial County is about 1.3 times less 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 Auto Body in Imperial County.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-4753.8%
5-9430.8%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 30.0% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202010n/a
2021100
202211+1
202313+2

How this market compares

Imperial 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.

Below average0.7 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 1.0

Fewer businesses per resident than the typical California market. Often an underserved market, though it can also mean residents buy this service in a neighbouring town.

Vs state median
-29%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#32
of 48 counties
Rank by density
#43
of 48 ranked
Since 2020
+30%
Change in establishments

Density compares automotive body & collision repair provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Imperial tracks the California size distribution closely.

Share of establishmentsImperialCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer53.8%49.4%+4.4%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target30.8%48.4%-17.7%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing0.0%28.0%-28.0%

What acquirers look at

Insurance Direct Repair Program relationships are the real asset and do not always transfer on a change of control. Verify DRP assignability before signing an LOI.

Cities in Imperial

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

Other industries in Imperial

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.