The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns for 2023 count 25,519 roofing contractor locations with paid employees in the United States. 16,661 of them, 65 percent, have fewer than five employees, and 80 percent have fewer than ten. The five biggest states hold 38 percent of them.
| State | Roofing contractor locations | Share with fewer than five employees |
|---|---|---|
| California | 2,926 | 63% |
| Texas | 2,442 | 74% |
| Florida | 2,215 | 56% |
| Illinois | 1,026 | 74% |
| Washington | 990 | 61% |
| Colorado | 920 | 75% |
| Ohio | 908 | 66% |
| Pennsylvania | 876 | 64% |
| New York | 838 | 67% |
| North Carolina | 816 | 67% |
Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors are a bigger trade: 111,207 locations with paid employees, 64,871 of them, 58 percent, under five employees, and 77 percent under ten. The five biggest states hold 37 percent.
| State | HVAC and plumbing locations | Share with fewer than five employees |
|---|---|---|
| California | 11,686 | 61% |
| Florida | 9,353 | 62% |
| Texas | 8,966 | 56% |
| New York | 7,061 | 61% |
| Pennsylvania | 4,154 | 60% |
| Illinois | 4,070 | 63% |
| North Carolina | 3,973 | 55% |
| New Jersey | 3,454 | 63% |
| Georgia | 3,101 | 57% |
| Massachusetts | 3,069 | 62% |
The small-shop share runs higher in the hail states. Among states with at least 100 roofing locations, Georgia (76 percent), Colorado (75), Oklahoma (74), Texas (74) and Illinois (74) have the largest share under five employees; Nevada (47), Oregon (51), Arizona (53) and Florida (56) the smallest. For HVAC and plumbing the highest shares are in New England, Maine (72), Vermont (71) and New Hampshire (70), and the lowest in Nevada (47), Tennessee (50) and Indiana (51).
These counts leave out every outfit with no payroll. A one-person roofing or plumbing business with no employees sits in the Census Bureau's nonemployer statistics, not here, so the list of companies a homeowner can call is longer than these tables, and the small end of it is smaller still.
The shape is the useful part. In every state on either list, more than half of the shops have fewer than five people. A homeowner choosing between them is choosing between phones, and the one that gets answered gets the job.
What ProxMedia does about it: an AI receptionist for HVAC companies, for plumbers and for roofing companies, and the local search work that puts a small shop in front of the homeowner first. The county tables for Colorado are in the roofing note and the HVAC and plumbing note.
Source: US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, state and US files, NAICS 238160 roofing contractors and NAICS 238220 plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors (establishments with paid employees, all legal forms); counted on October 30, 2026. State shares use states with at least 100 locations.