How big is the commercial cleaning market, how many companies compete for it, and what reply rate should you expect from a cold email to a property manager? This page answers those questions with figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the original industry reports.
Each number shows its source, year and method. Where a widely repeated statistic could not be traced to an original source, we left it out and listed it at the end. Nothing here comes from LeadDuo or customer data.
What you’ll get from this guide
- U.S. janitorial companies with employees took in $72.6 billion in 2022, across 63,999 firms and 1.15 million employees (Census, 2022 Economic Census).
- Most are small: 61% of janitorial establishments have fewer than 5 employees (Census, County Business Patterns 2023). Another 1.1 million janitorial businesses have no employees at all (Census, Nonemployer Statistics 2023).
- 35% of the 2.4 million U.S. janitor and building cleaner jobs are at cleaning contractors. The rest are mostly in-house at schools, hospitals and government (BLS, 2025).
- There are about 373,000 HOAs and condo associations in the U.S., covering 29.6 million homes (Foundation for Community Association Research, 2025).
- The average cold email reply rate across Instantly's platform was 3.43% in 2025, and 42% of replies came from follow-ups, not the first email (Instantly, 2026).
Headline numbers
$72.6B
Janitorial revenue, employer firms (2022)
63,999
Janitorial firms with employees (2022)
1.1M
Janitorial businesses with no employees (2023)
61%
Janitorial establishments with fewer than 5 employees
$115.4B
Landscaping revenue, employer firms (2022)
373,000
HOAs and condo associations (2025)
3.43%
Average cold email reply rate (Instantly, 2025)
42%
Cold email replies that came from follow-ups
Market size and number of companies
| Measure | Janitorial (NAICS 561720) | Landscaping (NAICS 561730) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue, firms with employees (2022) | $72.6 billion | $115.4 billion | Census, 2022 Economic Census |
| Firms with employees (2022) | 63,999 | 114,570 | Census, 2022 Economic Census |
| Employees (2022) | 1,148,248 | 808,067 | Census, 2022 Economic Census |
| Establishments (2023) | 67,799 | 117,969 | Census, CBP 2023 |
| Businesses with no employees (2023) | 1,095,927 | 516,572 | Census, Nonemployer Statistics 2023 |
| Receipts of businesses with no employees (2023) | $22.8 billion | $18.6 billion | Census, Nonemployer Statistics 2023 |
The Economic Census counts every employer establishment; the 2022 edition is the latest, released in 2024. Nonemployer businesses are mostly self-employed owners, counted from tax records. Paid market-research firms publish larger market totals (IBISWorld puts U.S. janitorial services at $112.4 billion for 2026), but their method isn't public, so we lead with the Census figures.
How small most competitors are (2023)
| Establishment size | Janitorial | Landscaping |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer than 5 employees | 41,548 (61%) | 83,241 (71%) |
| Fewer than 10 employees | 52,070 (77%) | — |
| All establishments with employees | 67,799 | 117,969 |
Counts from <a href='https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/datasets/2023/cbp23us.zip'>Census County Business Patterns 2023</a>. Percentages are our arithmetic on those counts. A dash means we didn't calculate that cut.
Who employs the workers: contractors vs in-house
| Occupation | Jobs (2025) | Share at contractors | Other large employers | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Janitors and building cleaners | 2,432,600 | 35% (services to buildings and dwellings) | Education 17%, healthcare 7%, government 5% | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
| Grounds maintenance workers | 1,299,200 | 48% (services to buildings and dwellings) | Self-employed 20% | BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook |
The in-house share is the work a contractor could still win: schools, hospitals and public buildings that clean with their own staff today.
Who buys: HOAs, commercial buildings and facility managers
- 373,000 community associations (HOAs, condos and co-ops) cover 29.6 million housing units and 78.1 million residents in 2025. HOAs are 58–63% of them. The Foundation estimates 374,000–377,000 for 2026 (Foundation for Community Association Research, 2025).
- 5.9 million commercial buildings in the U.S. (EIA Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey). Older study: the 2018 survey is still the latest complete one.
- 80% of facility management organizations used an outside provider for janitorial work and 73% for roads and grounds (IFMA Facility Management Staffing Report). Older study: surveyed in 2009–2010, 994 IFMA members and 420 Today's Facility Manager subscribers. It's the most recent primary figure we found.
- Federal service contracts generally can't run longer than 5 years including options (FAR 17.204(e)). This is the only hard rule on contract length we found. It covers federal buyers, not private property managers.
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Cold email benchmarks (B2B, all industries)
| Benchmark | Figure | How it was measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average reply rate | 3.43% | Instantly platform data, Jan 1 – Dec 18, 2025, thousands of workspaces | Instantly, 2026 |
| Top-quartile reply rate | 5.5% | Same dataset | Instantly, 2026 |
| Share of replies from the first email | 58% | Same dataset; the other 42% came from follow-ups | Instantly, 2026 |
| Average reply rate, strict definition | 0.45% | 7.5 million emails from Belkins client campaigns in 2025; unique replies ÷ emails sent, auto-replies and bounces excluded | Belkins, 2026 |
| Construction and legal campaigns | 0.56–0.60% | Same Belkins dataset, by industry | Belkins, 2026 |
The two reply rates measure different things: Instantly reports across its users' campaigns, Belkins divides unique human replies by every email sent. Neither is specific to cleaning or facility services, so treat them as a range, not a target.
What the numbers mean for a small contractor
- You're competing with tens of thousands of small firms, so a generic "we do commercial cleaning" email blends in. Name the building, the city and one specific reason to talk.
- Plan for follow-ups. In Instantly's data, 42 of every 100 replies came after the first email.
- Look past offices. Schools, hospitals and public buildings still clean with in-house staff, and HOAs hire contractors through a board, often on a schedule.
- Write the email in a minute with the free commercial cold email generator, then find the property managers to send it to with LeadDuo Prospect.
Numbers we couldn't verify
These show up on many cleaning and sales blogs. We tried to trace each one to an original study and couldn't, so they aren't used on this page:
- "Cleaning companies lose up to 55% of their customers every year." Every copy we found traces back to an older blog post with no study, sample or method.
- "Commercial cleaning contracts usually run 1 to 3 years." Common advice, but we found no association or government survey with a figure for private contracts.
- "The average cold email open rate is 27.7%." It comes from compilations of other vendors' data, not one dataset we could open.
- "34% of facilities don't outsource any cleaning." Attributed to an industry magazine survey, but it isn't in that publisher's own reports.
- Percentages on how property managers find vendors (referrals vs search vs cold outreach). We found no primary survey with numbers; the association reports that might hold them are paywalled.
Methodology and sources
Every figure was checked against its original source on October 31, 2026. Census dollar figures are reported in thousands; we rounded to the nearest $0.1 billion. Percentages marked as our arithmetic are simple shares of the Census counts shown; nothing is projected or estimated by LeadDuo.
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, table EC2256BASIC (NAICS 561720 and 561730)
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (national file)
- U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2023 (NAICS 56172 and 56173)
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Janitors and Building Cleaners and Grounds Maintenance Workers (2025 data)
- Foundation for Community Association Research, 2025 Statistical Review
- U.S. EIA, Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey 2018
- IFMA, Facility Management Staffing Report, Research Report #33 (2010)
- Federal Acquisition Regulation 17.204
- Instantly, Cold Email Benchmark Report 2026 and Belkins, B2B Cold Email Response Rates (2026 Study)
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