Trade guide, national
Landscaping contractors in the United States
This site publishes 98,058 landscaping contractor records across all fifty states and the District of Columbia, or 2.93 per 10,000 residents. 1 of them publishes a business-level licence source for landscaping that a listing can be matched against.
This page is the one place on this site that explains what landscaping work involves, what its credentials are and where to check one. The counts for a particular metro area are on that metro’s own page, and what a licence class means in a particular state is on that state’s page.
The national facts
- Landscaping contractor records
- 98,058Foursquare Open Source Places, release August 11, 2026
- Per 10,000 residents
- 2.93 per 10,000Population 334,914,895, Census Bureau Vintage 2023 population estimates, as of July 1, 2023
- States publishing a licence source for this trade
- 1 of 51State license files, as of September 2, 2026California.
- Licensed share where a source exists
- 15.7%State license files, as of September 2, 2026Counted only inside the states that publish a source, and never across a state line. It measures how often a published listing and a published licence could be matched to each other, which is not the same question as whether a business holds one.
- Active licences with no public listing
- 9,776State license files, as of September 2, 2026Active licences covering this trade with no matching record in open place data, summed over the states that publish a source. This is the home-based tail.
- Most records per resident
- Connecticut, 6.18 per 10,000Population 3,617,176, Census Bureau Vintage 2023 population estimates, as of July 1, 2023The fewest is District of Columbia, at 0.56 per 10,000. Both ends describe where businesses are recorded, not where work is done.
- Employment and pay for this trade
- Not published for this tradeBLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 OEWS, published May 15, 2026No single BLS occupation maps to this trade cleanly enough to print, so no employment or wage figure is shown rather than one built from an occupation that means something else.
- Independent, franchise, corporate
- 97,177 independent, 266 franchise brand, 381 corporate owned, 234 awaiting chain reviewFoursquare Open Source Places, release August 11, 2026
What each row counts, and the universe it counts it in, is set out on the methodology page.
What is particular about landscaping work
Landscaping is four different jobs sold under one name, two of which are regulated by somebody other than a contractor board, and one of which starts by calling before anyone digs.
Call before the shovel goes in
Every landscaping job that breaks ground, a fence, a planting bed, an irrigation trench, a retaining wall, sits on top of buried utilities. The national 811 service notifies the utility operators, who mark their lines in the yard, and the notice is normally required by state law before excavation rather than merely advisable.
The marks are free and the wait is a matter of days. A contractor who intends to trench next week and has not called this week is skipping a legal step, and a struck gas or fibre line is a bill that dwarfs the landscaping.
Irrigation crosses into plumbing
An irrigation system is connected to the potable water supply, so it needs a backflow prevention assembly to keep water that has been in the ground from being drawn back into the house or the main. In most jurisdictions that assembly has to be of an approved type, installed at a stated height, and tested on a schedule by a certified tester whose report goes to the water utility.
That is a different credential from a landscaping licence and often a different company. When an irrigation quote is materially cheaper than the others, the backflow assembly and its test are a common place for the difference to be hiding.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, cross-connection control
Lawn chemicals need a certified applicator
A company applying herbicides, fungicides or insecticides to a lawn for hire is doing commercial pesticide application, and the state certifies applicators for it, usually through a department of agriculture and normally in a turf and ornamental category. The credential belongs to the applicator and the business registration to the company, and neither is in the contractor licence files this site reads.
A homeowner is entitled to know what was applied, at what rate and how long to stay off the grass. A service that leaves a record answering those three questions is doing it correctly.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, pesticide applicator certification
Tree work is a different trade with a different risk
Removing or reducing a mature tree is aerial work with saws near power lines, and it is the highest-risk work sold under the landscaping heading. It is priced differently, insured differently, and in many places carried out by companies that do nothing else. Proof of general liability and workers' compensation coverage matters more here than on any other yard job, because an injury on your property that the contractor is not insured for becomes your problem.
Municipal tree ordinances and permits for removals above a certain trunk diameter are common, and a contractor working in the area will know which apply.
Every rule stated above links the public page that states it: Common Ground Alliance, call 811 before you dig; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, cross-connection control; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, pesticide applicator certification.
Landscaping state by state
Each state page carries its own licence classes, its number formats and what its rules do to this trade in particular. The record counts below are that state’s whole landscaping universe, the same figure its own page prints.
| State | Records | Per 10,000 | Licensed share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 1,149 | 2.25 | Not published |
| Alaska | 154 | 2.10 | Not published |
| Arizona | 1,620 | 2.18 | Not published |
| Arkansas | 653 | 2.13 | Not published |
| California | 7,933 | 2.04 | 15.7% |
| Colorado | 1,915 | 3.26 | Not published |
| Connecticut | 2,234 | 6.18 | Not published |
| Delaware | 353 | 3.42 | Not published |
| District of Columbia | 38 | 0.56 | Not published |
| Florida | 7,046 | 3.12 | Not published |
| Georgia | 3,868 | 3.51 | Not published |
| Hawaii | 209 | 1.46 | Not published |
| Idaho | 659 | 3.35 | Not published |
| Illinois | 4,276 | 3.41 | Not published |
| Indiana | 2,379 | 3.47 | Not published |
| Iowa | 982 | 3.06 | Not published |
| Kansas | 865 | 2.94 | Not published |
| Kentucky | 1,171 | 2.59 | Not published |
| Louisiana | 1,067 | 2.33 | Not published |
| Maine | 746 | 5.34 | Not published |
| Maryland | 1,838 | 2.97 | Not published |
| Massachusetts | 3,441 | 4.91 | Not published |
| Michigan | 4,337 | 4.32 | Not published |
| Minnesota | 2,691 | 4.69 | Not published |
| Mississippi | 588 | 2.00 | Not published |
| Missouri | 1,767 | 2.85 | Not published |
| Montana | 463 | 4.09 | Not published |
| Nebraska | 210 | 1.06 | Not published |
| Nevada | 573 | 1.79 | Not published |
| New Hampshire | 769 | 5.48 | Not published |
| New Jersey | 2,845 | 3.06 | Not published |
| New Mexico | 384 | 1.82 | Not published |
| New York | 4,559 | 2.33 | Not published |
| North Carolina | 3,900 | 3.60 | Not published |
| North Dakota | 270 | 3.44 | Not published |
| Ohio | 4,578 | 3.88 | Not published |
| Oklahoma | 730 | 1.80 | Not published |
| Oregon | 1,233 | 2.91 | Not published |
| Pennsylvania | 4,785 | 3.69 | Not published |
| Rhode Island | 433 | 3.95 | Not published |
| South Carolina | 1,629 | 3.03 | Not published |
| South Dakota | 217 | 2.36 | Not published |
| Tennessee | 1,963 | 2.75 | Not published |
| Texas | 5,706 | 1.87 | Not published |
| Utah | 718 | 2.10 | Not published |
| Vermont | 331 | 5.11 | Not published |
| Virginia | 2,417 | 2.77 | Not published |
| Washington | 2,426 | 3.11 | Not published |
| West Virginia | 276 | 1.56 | Not published |
| Wisconsin | 2,459 | 4.16 | Not published |
| Wyoming | 205 | 3.51 | Not published |
Nothing on this page is a rating, an endorsement, or a recommendation, and no figure here describes any individual business. Ordering never depends on payment, claim status, license status, or any commercial relationship, on this page or any other.