NAICS 531130 · California overview

Self-Storage Facilities in Sonoma County

Sonoma County had 35 Self Storage establishments in 2023, ranking 18 of 46 California counties and accounting for 1.6% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
35
Rank 18 of 46 counties
Employees
78
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$3.3M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
0.7
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
47
2026Q1
Employment
90
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$757
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+6.8%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

1.14 location quotient. Self Storage is about as concentrated in Sonoma 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 Self Storage in Sonoma County.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-43291.4%
5-938.6%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net decline of 14.6% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202041n/a
202138-3
202237-1
202335-2

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 average0.7 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 0.6

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

Vs state median
+16%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#18
of 46 counties
Rank by density
#16
of 46 ranked
Since 2020
-15%
Change in establishments

Density compares self-storage facilities 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 layer91.4%87.3%+4.1%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target8.6%10.6%-2.0%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing0.0%1.3%-1.3%

What acquirers look at

Priced as real estate on cap rates rather than as an operating business on earnings. The most automatable category in the index.

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.