20 Salon Industry Statistics Every Owner Should Know Before Opening Another Location

There is no single number that safely describes the salon industry. A Census establishment is a physical business location. A Census employer firm can operate more than one establishment. A nonemployer establishment has no paid employees. A Bureau of Labor Statistics occupation count describes workers, not salons. A platform benchmark describes the businesses represented in that platform's dataset.

We read the original Census, BLS, and Zenoti sources and extracted the most useful statistics for salon owners and industry researchers. The figures below keep the units, definitions, source populations, and years visible so that a market-size number does not get mistaken for a worker count or an operating benchmark.

Back to Salon statistics

The salon industry has three different units worth counting

The first unit is the employer establishment: a physical location with paid employees, counted by Census County Business Patterns. The second is the nonemployer establishment: a business with no paid employees, counted by Census Nonemployer Statistics from tax records. The third is the occupation: a worker category counted by BLS, which can include people working in salons, barbershops, spas, hotels, retail, or their own businesses.

The table is the article's foundation. It combines the most useful national figures, but it labels the source for every measure. The occupation and self-employment columns are context for the business category, not a claim that BLS workers map one-to-one to Census establishments.

The employee and payroll figures in the table are CBP measures for the pay period including March 12, while the revenue figures are AIES or AIES-NES estimates. They should be read as source-specific measures, not as a single combined accounting statement.

Census counted 84,176 beauty salon employer establishments in 2023

The 2023 Census County Business Patterns count for NAICS 812112 was 84,176 employer establishments in the United States. This is the clearest starting point for the employer beauty salon market because the measure counts physical establishments with paid employees rather than individual stylists.

Census defines the category around services such as cutting, trimming, shampooing, coloring, waving, or styling hair, along with facials and makeup application. The definition is narrower than every business that a consumer might casually call a salon, so the NAICS code should stay attached to the number whenever it is quoted.

Census counted 34,417 nail salons and 7,789 barber shops separately

The same 2023 CBP data counted 34,417 employer establishments under NAICS 812113, Nail salons, and 7,789 under NAICS 812111, Barber shops. Nail salons are classified around nail care services such as manicures, pedicures, and nail extensions. Barber shops are a separate industry category from beauty salons in the Census framework.

That separation prevents a common market-size mistake. A writer who adds beauty salons, nail salons, and barber shops should say that the result is a sum of three NAICS categories. A writer who wants a pure beauty salon benchmark should not quietly include nail or barber locations just because customers see them as related businesses.

Employer beauty salons reported $27.0 billion in 2023 revenue

The 2023 Annual Integrated Economic Survey estimated $26.967536 billion in revenue for employer firms in NAICS 812112. Those firms reported $11.918590 billion in annual payroll and 392,901 employees in the AIES measure. The payroll and employee figures differ slightly from the CBP figures because the surveys have different designs and measures.

Revenue is not profit, owner income, or the amount available to pay a stylist. It includes business revenue before the costs that determine operating margin. The useful comparison is therefore revenue alongside payroll, employees, establishment count, and the business model used to produce it.

Employer nail salons reported $12.2 billion in 2023 revenue

The 2023 AIES estimated $12.246857 billion in employer-firm revenue for NAICS 812113 nail salons. The same table reported $3.845756 billion in annual payroll and 158,952 employees. This is a national employer-firm estimate, not the revenue of the average nail salon.

The number becomes more useful when paired with the separate nonemployer estimate later in the article. Nail businesses have a large independent and owner-operated population, so an employer-only revenue figure describes only one part of the category.

Nonemployer beauty establishments were nearly 10 times employer establishments

The 2023 Census Nonemployer Statistics counted 838,264 beauty salon nonemployer establishments under NAICS 812112, compared with 84,176 employer establishments in CBP. Dividing the two counts gives roughly 10 nonemployer establishments for every employer establishment.

That ratio does not mean that the United States has 10 times as many storefronts. Nonemployer Statistics counts businesses with no paid employees from tax records, and the units can include solo operators, mobile businesses, and independent professionals. The ratio is a structural signal: a large share of the beauty service market is organized outside ordinary payroll employment.

Nonemployer businesses supplied 48.6% of combined beauty salon revenue

The 2023 Census AIES-NES table reports $26.967536 billion in employer revenue and $25.461586 billion in nonemployer revenue for beauty salons. Adding the two source populations gives $52.429122 billion, with nonemployers representing 48.6% of that derived total.

This is a calculated comparison, not a single Census market-size series. Nonemployer revenue is not profit, and its lack of paid employees does not mean that the operator has no labor cost. It means the labor is not recorded as paid employees in that Census population.

Nonemployer nail establishments were 8.6 times the employer population

For nail salons, Census counted 295,977 nonemployer establishments and 34,417 employer establishments in 2023. The nonemployer count was therefore about 8.6 times the employer count. Nonemployer revenue was $12.184676 billion, almost equal to the $12.246857 billion reported by employer firms.

The result is a warning against using payroll employment as a proxy for total nail-industry activity. A nail salon market report that only counts employer locations or payroll employees will miss a large owner-operated and independent part of the category.

Most employer establishments had fewer than five employees

CBP's employment-size data show that 68.7% of beauty salon employer establishments had fewer than five employees in 2023. The equivalent share was 65.6% for nail salons and 75.5% for barber shops. These percentages are calculated from the published establishment counts in each category's size distribution.

The distribution explains why an industry-wide average can be misleading. A small number of larger locations can coexist with a much larger population of very small businesses. A salon owner should compare with locations of a similar employee-size class before using a national average to make a hiring or expansion decision.

Employer establishments averaged fewer than five employees in each core category

Dividing CBP employment by CBP employer establishments gives an approximate 4.65 employees per beauty salon establishment, 4.30 per nail salon establishment, and 3.73 per barber shop establishment. These are derived ratios, not full-time-equivalent counts or recommended staffing levels.

The calculation uses employment during the pay period including March 12 and an establishment count covering the year. It is useful for describing the small-business structure, but it should not be used to estimate daily coverage, service capacity, or the number of professionals physically working at every location.

The BLS counted 575,200 hairdressers and 76,000 barbers in 2024

The BLS counted about 575,200 jobs for hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists and about 76,000 jobs for barbers in 2024. Together, the occupations accounted for 651,200 jobs. These are occupation counts, so they include workers whose employers may be salons, barbershops, personal care businesses, retailers, or the workers themselves.

The combined 651,200 figure should not be compared directly with the 84,176 beauty salon establishments as though each establishment had one worker. One person can work at a location, one business can have several locations, and some workers are outside the employer establishment universe entirely.

Self-employed workers were 48% of hairdressers and 76% of barbers

In the BLS work-environment data, self-employed workers represented 48% of hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists and 76% of barbers. Personal care services employed 46% of the hair and cosmetology occupation and 23% of barbers, with other workers distributed across additional industries.

These percentages are occupation-level employment shares. They are not the same as the Census nonemployer establishment count and do not identify whether a worker rents a chair, works on commission, operates a booth, or owns a salon. That distinction matters when an owner is comparing payroll hiring with independent-professional capacity.

Median wages were $16.95 for hairdressers and $18.73 for barbers

The BLS reported May 2024 median hourly wages of $16.95 for hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists and $18.73 for barbers. Within the personal care services industry, the corresponding medians were $17.10 and $18.35.

The BLS wage series includes tips but does not include pay for self-employed workers because those earnings are not collected by the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey. These numbers therefore should not be presented as average salon pay, self-employed income, chair-rental revenue, or owner profit.

The nail occupation included 210,100 jobs and 28% self-employed workers

The BLS counted 210,100 manicurist and pedicurist jobs in 2024. Personal care services employed 71% of the occupation, while self-employed workers represented 28%. The median hourly wage was $16.66 in May 2024, and BLS projects the occupation to reach 224,800 jobs by 2034.

The occupation is broader than the 34,417 employer nail salon establishments in the Census data. Nail professionals can work in nail salons, hair salons, spas, or independently, so the job count and the establishment count answer different questions.

Skincare specialists added 97,400 jobs but are not a salon count

The BLS counted 97,400 skincare specialist jobs in 2024. Personal care services employed 54% of the occupation, self-employed workers represented 26%, and offices of physicians accounted for 8%. The median hourly wage was $19.98 in May 2024.

Skincare is an important adjacent service category, but it should not be added to beauty salon or nail salon totals without a definition. BLS includes specialists working in salons, spas, and medical settings, while Census assigns medical skin care services such as dermatology to health care rather than NAICS 812112.

Nail and skincare occupations were projected to grow 7% through 2034

The BLS projects 7% employment growth from 2024 to 2034 for both manicurists and pedicurists and skincare specialists. It projects about 24,800 annual openings for manicurists and pedicurists and about 14,500 annual openings for skincare specialists over the decade.

The openings include replacement demand, not just newly created jobs. An owner using these numbers for recruiting should therefore distinguish between market growth, replacement hiring, professional turnover, and the number of roles that a specific location can economically support.

Hair and barber occupations were projected to grow 5% through 2034

The combined BLS occupation of barbers, hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists is projected to grow 5% from 2024 to 2034, from 651,200 jobs to 686,600. BLS projects about 84,200 openings per year on average, many of them caused by workers transferring occupations or leaving the labor force.

The combined rate hides differences inside the category. BLS projects 4% growth for barbers and 6% growth for hairdressers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists. The figures describe labor-market demand, not the revenue growth or utilization target of a particular salon.

Adding employer and nonemployer revenue produces a different market headline

The most honest way to publish a broad revenue figure is to show the arithmetic and the populations included. The table adds the separate 2023 employer and nonemployer revenue estimates for each NAICS category:

These derived totals are useful for comparison, but they are not a single official Census number called total salon-industry revenue. They combine different statistical populations, and they still exclude or separate other personal care categories. Any article using the totals should show the formula rather than present the result as an unqualified market size.

Specialty salons grew 5% in same-store revenue while full-service salons grew 2%

Zenoti's 2026 salon benchmark reports 2025 same-store revenue growth of 5% for specialty salons and 2% for full-service salons. Zenoti defines full-service salons as higher-revenue, multi-service operations and specialty salons as more focused concepts such as brow and lash salons, blowout bars, and other focused service businesses.

This is an operating benchmark from anonymized North American businesses represented in Zenoti's dataset, not a Census estimate of the entire U.S. market. Its value is in comparing like operating models and reading current performance trends, not in replacing the official industry counts above.

Specialty salons added locations 12% versus 8% for full-service salons

The same Zenoti source reports 2025 location-count growth of 12% for specialty salons and 8% for full-service salons. Specialty salons also reported 11% total revenue growth, while full-service salons reported 2% total revenue growth in the table.

The contrast shows why total growth and same-store growth should be reported separately. Location expansion can raise total revenue even when the existing-location trend is weaker. Before opening another location, an owner should compare the current location's same-store revenue, utilization, retention, and staffing economics with the expansion plan.

Sources