NAICS 311811 · California overview

Retail Bakeries in Sonoma County

Sonoma County had 20 Bakeries establishments in 2023, ranking 15 of 35 California counties and accounting for 1.5% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
20
Rank 15 of 35 counties
Employees
170
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$4.5M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.4
486,444 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
20
2026Q1
Employment
233
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$869
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
-4.8%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

1.66 location quotient. Bakeries employment in Sonoma County is about 1.7 times more 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 Bakeries in Sonoma County. 6 of 20 establishments (30%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-4945.0%
5-9315.0%
10-19630.0%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 66.7% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202012n/a
202113+1
202219+6
202320+1

How this market compares

Sonoma 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.

Above average0.4 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.3

More provision than the typical California market of this size. Usually a sign of genuine local demand rather than oversupply.

Vs state median
+37%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#15
of 35 counties
Rank by density
#11
of 35 ranked
Since 2020
+67%
Change in establishments

Density compares retail bakeries provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Sonoma tracks the California size distribution closely.

Share of establishmentsSonomaCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer45.0%43.3%+1.7%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target45.0%50.7%-5.7%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing30.0%31.8%-1.8%

What acquirers look at

Wholesale accounts with grocers and restaurants are worth far more than retail counter revenue. Equipment and buildout carry meaningful replacement value.

Cities in Sonoma

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

Other industries in Sonoma

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.