NAICS 541211, 541213 · California overview

Accounting & Tax Preparation Firms in Sacramento County

Sacramento County had 374 Accounting establishments in 2023, ranking 6 of 50 California counties and accounting for 3.3% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
374
Rank 6 of 50 counties
Employees
2,580
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$172M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
2.3
1,618,460 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
412
2026Q1
Employment
2,437
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$1,545
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+2.7%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

0.88 location quotient. Accounting is about as concentrated in Sacramento 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 Accounting in Sacramento County. 47 of 374 establishments (13%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-424565.5%
5-98221.9%
10-19267.0%
20-49133.5%
50-9951.3%
100-24930.8%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net decline of 4.6% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
2020392n/a
20213920
2022364-28
2023374+10

How this market compares

Sacramento 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.

Typical2.3 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 2.4

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

Vs state median
-3%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#6
of 50 counties
Rank by density
#28
of 50 ranked
Since 2020
-5%
Change in establishments

Density compares accounting & tax preparation firms provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Sacramento tracks the California size distribution closely.

Share of establishmentsSacramentoCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer65.5%69.5%-4.0%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target32.4%27.7%+4.6%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing12.6%10.9%+1.7%

What acquirers look at

The most acute succession crisis of any professional service category. A large share of partners are past traditional retirement age with no internal successor. Annual recurring compliance revenue with exceptional retention.

Cities in Sacramento

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

Other industries in Sacramento

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.