Census CBP 2023 · NAICS 811192
How many auto detailing businesses are there in the US?
Auto detailing does not get its own federal code either. It is counted with car washes, and this page shows exactly what that means.
- With employees19,807establishments
- Without employeesNot publishedat this code
- Employees172,644in the employer half
- Annual payroll$5.1 billionemployer half
Tunnel washes dominate the employment number, which is why average headcount is nearly nine per establishment in a trade most people picture as one person with a polisher. The solo mobile detailer is the part of this industry the federal data measures worst.
Businesses with staff, and businesses without
These are two different federal surveys covering two different universes, and adding them together without saying so is the most common way this data gets misquoted. They are kept separate here on purpose.
| Measure | Employer | Nonemployer |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses | 19,807 | Not published |
| People employed | 172,644 | None, by definition |
| Average staff each | 8.7 | Zero |
| Annual payroll | $5.1 billion | Not published |
| Source | Census CBP 2023 | See the note below |
Census does not publish a nonemployer figure for 811192. The nearest published level is NAICS 81119, Other Automotive Repair and Maintenance, at 97,480 nonemployer businesses, and that code also contains oil change shops and rustproofing. It is not a detailing count and is not quoted as one here.
car washes and detailing shops with employees are 0.237 per cent of all 8,361,342 US establishments with employees
The five states with the most car washes and detailing shops
| State | Establishments with employees |
|---|---|
| California | 2,231 |
| Texas | 1,858 |
| Florida | 1,668 |
| New York | 964 |
| Illinois | 783 |
Employer establishments only. The nonemployer side is not published by state at this level of detail, and in most of these trades it is the larger half, so treat this table as a ranking rather than a census of the trade.
Car Washes
Counted here
Automatic and self service car washes, hand washing, and automotive detailing shops.
Counted somewhere else
Mobile detailers with no fixed premises are hard to place, and mechanical repair shops are counted elsewhere entirely.
Where these numbers came from
Public domain US federal statistics, fetched by hand and baked into this site rather than called at build time. If you quote a figure from this page, cite the agency rather than this site, and use the wording below.
US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns, 2023, United States, NAICS 811192 Car Washes. Accessed 2026-08-01.
Counts establishments with at least one paid employee, measured in the week of 12 March 2023. A business with no employees is counted by Nonemployer Statistics instead, not here.
What these workers are paid
Marketing the trade
All the numbers
Common questions
- How many auto detailing businesses are there in the US?
- Census County Business Patterns counted 19,807 car washes and detailing shops with at least one paid employee in 2023, employing 172,644 people on a payroll of $5.1 billion. Census does not publish a nonemployer count at this level of detail, so the figure above covers businesses with staff only. NAICS code 811192.
- Why are there two different numbers?
- Because they measure two different universes. County Business Patterns counts establishments with at least one paid employee. Nonemployer Statistics counts businesses with no employees and at least a thousand dollars of annual receipts. Together they cover every US business, and adding them without saying so would be misleading, so this page keeps them apart.
- What else is inside this code?
- Automatic and self service car washes, hand washing, and automotive detailing shops. What it excludes: mobile detailers with no fixed premises are hard to place, and mechanical repair shops are counted elsewhere entirely.
- How current is this?
- 2023 is the most recent County Business Patterns and Nonemployer Statistics release published by the Census Bureau. Both were fetched and baked into this site on 1 August 2026. This page makes no live API call.
Numbers persuade nobody. The pair does.
Every trade on this page sells the same way: a photograph of the problem beside a photograph of the result. Take the two, and Before and After Video Maker turns them into a 1080p video, a looping GIF or a still.