NAICS 524210 · California overview
Insurance Agencies & Brokerages in Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara County had 143 Insurance Agency establishments in 2023, ranking 19 of 55 California counties and accounting for 1.0% of the statewide total.
- Establishments (2023)
- 143
- Rank 19 of 55 counties
- Employees
- 676
- Mid-March employment
- Annual payroll
- $58M
- All establishments
- Per 10k residents
- 3.2
- 442,065 residents
More recent reading
BLS QCEW, 2026Q1The 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
- 138
- 2026Q1
- Employment
- 545
- Quarter-end level
- Average weekly wage
- $2,112
- Per covered worker
- Quarterly trend
- 0.0%
- 2025Q2 to 2026Q1
0.40 location quotient. Insurance Agency employment in Santa Barbara County is about 2.5 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 Insurance Agency in Santa Barbara County. 13 of 143 establishments (9%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.
| Employees | Establishments | Share | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | 106 | 74.1% | |
| 5-9 | 23 | 16.1% | |
| 10-19 | 7 | 4.9% | |
| 20-49 | 6 | 4.2% |
Establishment trend
Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net decline of 4.0% since 2020.
| Year | Establishments | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 149 | n/a |
| 2021 | 145 | -4 |
| 2022 | 147 | +2 |
| 2023 | 143 | -4 |
How this market compares
Santa Barbara 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.
Close to the state median for this industry. Provision is roughly what the population would predict.
- Vs state median
- +10%
- Businesses per resident
- Rank by count
- #19
- of 55 counties
- Rank by density
- #21
- of 55 ranked
- Since 2020
- -4%
- Change in establishments
Density compares insurance agencies & brokerages provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.
Business size mix
Santa Barbara tracks the California size distribution closely.
| Share of establishments | Santa Barbara | California | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer | 74.1% | 74.9% | -0.7% |
| 5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target | 25.2% | 23.2% | +1.9% |
| 10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing | 9.1% | 9.2% | -0.1% |
What acquirers look at
Renewal commission streams behave like an annuity, which is why these command the highest multiples in small business. Carrier appointment transfer is the gating diligence item.
Cities in Santa Barbara
The figures above cover the county as a whole. These are the places within it.
Other industries in Santa Barbara
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns. Establishment counts, employment and annual payroll by NAICS. Retrieved 2026-09-08.
- 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.