NAICS 811192 · California overview
Car Washes in Santa Cruz County
Santa Cruz County had 10 Car Wash establishments in 2023, ranking 29 of 42 California counties and accounting for 0.4% of the statewide total.
- Establishments (2023)
- 10
- Rank 29 of 42 counties
- Employees
- 118
- Mid-March employment
- Annual payroll
- $3.3M
- All establishments
- Per 10k residents
- 0.4
- 258,852 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
- 6
- 2026Q1
- Employment
- 99
- Quarter-end level
- Average weekly wage
- $428
- Per covered worker
- Quarterly trend
- 0.0%
- 2025Q2 to 2026Q1
0.79 location quotient. Car Wash employment in Santa Cruz 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 Car Wash in Santa Cruz County. 4 of 10 establishments (40%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.
| Employees | Establishments | Share | Distribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-4 | 5 | 50.0% | |
| 20-49 | 4 | 40.0% |
Establishment trend
Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 66.7% since 2020.
| Year | Establishments | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 6 | n/a |
| 2021 | 6 | 0 |
| 2022 | 8 | +2 |
| 2023 | 10 | +2 |
How this market compares
Santa Cruz 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.
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
- -32%
- Businesses per resident
- Rank by count
- #29
- of 42 counties
- Rank by density
- #38
- of 42 ranked
- Since 2020
- +67%
- Change in establishments
Density compares car washes provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.
Business size mix
Santa Cruz tracks the California size distribution closely.
| Share of establishments | Santa Cruz | California | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer | 50.0% | 46.8% | +3.2% |
| 5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target | 40.0% | 48.7% | -8.7% |
| 10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing | 40.0% | 35.2% | +4.8% |
What acquirers look at
Subscription membership models converted this from a cash business into an institutional asset class. Expect real-estate-driven pricing rather than earnings multiples.
Cities in Santa Cruz
The figures above cover the county as a whole. These are the places within it.
Other industries in Santa Cruz
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.