NAICS 624410 · California overview

Child Day Care Services in Tulare County

Tulare County had 60 Childcare establishments in 2023, ranking 27 of 53 California counties and accounting for 0.6% of the statewide total.

Establishments (2023)
60
Rank 27 of 53 counties
Employees
349
Mid-March employment
Annual payroll
$10M
All establishments
Per 10k residents
1.2
485,146 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
51
2026Q1
Employment
323
Quarter-end level
Average weekly wage
$561
Per covered worker
Quarterly trend
+2.0%
2025Q2 to 2026Q1
Concentration vs the national averageBLS, 2026Q1

0.29 location quotient. Childcare employment in Tulare County is about 3.4 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 Childcare in Tulare County. 11 of 60 establishments (18%) employ 10 or more people, the practical floor for most acquisition financing.

EmployeesEstablishmentsShareDistribution
1-44270.0%
5-9711.7%
10-1958.3%
20-49610.0%

Establishment trend

Year-over-year establishment counts, County Business Patterns. Net growth of 5.3% since 2020.

YearEstablishmentsChange
202057n/a
2021570
202265+8
202360-5

How this market compares

Tulare 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.

Thinly served1.2 per 10,000 residents, against a state median of 2.6

Well below the state median. Either a genuine gap in provision or a market served from somewhere nearby. Worth checking the neighbouring places below before drawing a conclusion.

Vs state median
-52%
Businesses per resident
Rank by count
#27
of 53 counties
Rank by density
#51
of 53 ranked
Since 2020
+5%
Change in establishments

Density compares child day care services provision per resident. It does not measure revenue, profitability or whether a market is worth entering.

Business size mix

Tulare is more fragmented than California as a whole: a larger share of very small operators. Fragmented markets are where roll-ups are assembled, and where an owner nearing retirement has no obvious internal buyer.

Share of establishmentsTulareCaliforniaDifference
Under 5 employeesOwner-operated, often no management layer70.0%53.2%+16.8%
5 to 49 employeesThe range most individual buyers target30.0%45.0%-15.0%
10 or more employeesPractical floor for acquisition financing18.3%27.3%-9.0%

What acquirers look at

License capacity is the asset and it does not transfer automatically in California. Staff-to-child ratio requirements cap margin structurally.

Cities in Tulare

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

Other industries in Tulare

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.