NAICS 812210 · California overview

Funeral Homes & Services in San Mateo County

San Mateo County had 12 Funeral Homes establishments in 2023, ranking 17 of 37 California counties and accounting for 1.5% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
12
Rank 17 of 37 counties
Employees
215
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$12M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.2
743,568 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
12
2026Q1
Employment
203
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$1,115
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
0.0%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

0.76 location quotient. Funeral Homes employment in San Mateo 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 Funeral Homes in San Mateo County.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-4325.0%
5-9541.7%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net decline of 7.7% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202013n/a
2021130
2022130
202312-1

How this market compares

San Mateo 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 average0.2 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.2

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
-35%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#17
of 37 counties
Rank by density
#34
of 37 ranked
Since 2020
-8%
Change in establishments

Density compares funeral homes & services provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

San Mateo 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 establishmentsSan MateoCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer25.0%46.7%-21.7%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target41.7%42.2%-0.5%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing0.0%19.9%-19.9%

What acquirers look at

Multi-generational family ownership, preneed trust liabilities, and extreme community-reputation dependence. Preneed trust accounting is the diligence item that matters.

Cities in San Mateo

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

Other industries in San Mateo

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.