It is one of the largest service industries in America, and almost nobody outside the trade press talks about it that way.
The U.S. landscaping services industry — IBISWorld's term, NAICS 561730 — is sized at approximately $188.8 billion in 2026, up from roughly $178.5 billion in 2024. The five‑year compound annual growth rate through 2025 was about 6.5%. Roughly 693,000 firms operate inside that envelope, and they employed about 1.3 million people as of May 2024 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.12
For context: that revenue figure is comparable in scale to the entire U.S. legal services industry and is growing faster than most of the white‑collar service sectors that get more press attention. It is also, on every dimension that matters for branding, the most fragmented major service industry in the country.
This piece is the first of two notes on the category that sits behind this domain. It is short, sourced, and unhyped. If you want the headline first: landscaping is bigger than most people think, the firms inside it are smaller than most people think, and the gap between those two facts is where category branding gets interesting.
The number, where it comes from, and what it includes
IBISWorld is the most commonly cited source for U.S. landscaping market size. Its current industry analysis page lists a 2026 market size of $188.8 billion and an establishment count of 693,000.1 The same firm's market size dashboard tracks the series back to roughly $83 billion in 2013 — more than a doubling over the intervening decade, with the bulk of that growth concentrated post‑2018.2
The definition is broad. It covers the work outdoor‑service firms do under contractual or one‑off arrangements: lawn mowing and plant care, hard and soft‑scape installation, tree services, irrigation system care, and snow removal. Mordor Intelligence uses a near‑identical scope and pegs maintenance at 45% of category revenue.3 What sits outside the count: retail of DIY gardening supplies and standalone equipment sales without service bundling.
How the revenue divides
Treat the category as four sub‑markets. Recurring maintenance is the largest and the most route‑dense: mowing, fertilization, weed control, seasonal cleanup. Mordor pegs maintenance at 45% of the U.S. total and notes that more than three‑quarters of new residential bookings at leading providers come in under recurring subscription contracts rather than one‑off jobs. Design‑build and hardscape — patios, retaining walls, lighting, outdoor kitchens — is smaller in dollars but the fastest‑growing pool, projected at an 8.8% CAGR through 2030. Tree care and irrigation sit alongside as specialised practices, often spun off as separate corporate entities. Snow removal varies by region but contributes meaningfully to northern‑state firms' annual revenue.3
The application split is roughly 61% residential and 39% commercial, with the commercial segment growing faster (~7.4% CAGR projected) as office parks, hospitals, schools, and HOA‑managed communities tighten ESG and curb‑appeal requirements.3
| Segment | Share of U.S. revenue | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance (mowing, plant care, fertilization) | ~45% | Subscription‑led; routes drive margin |
| Design‑build & hardscape | Growing fastest (8.8% CAGR) | Outdoor living surge since 2020 |
| Tree care & arboriculture | Specialist sub‑segment | Often separate corporate entity |
| Irrigation install & service | Specialist sub‑segment | Tied to water regulation (see water note) |
| Snow & ice management | Regional | Counter‑cyclical revenue smoothing |
The fragmentation tells you almost everything
The single most important structural fact about U.S. landscaping is concentration — or rather, the absence of it. Industry analyses converge on the same conclusion: the top five firms collectively control under 9% of the market, and no single firm controls more than roughly 5%.34 The largest pure‑play operator, BrightView Holdings, reported approximately $2.67 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2025 (ended September 30, 2025) — a number that sounds enormous until you set it next to a $188 billion total industry.5
The lawn and landscaping sector is highly fragmented, with hundreds of thousands of businesses nationwide — mostly small operators — and no single firm controls more than around 5% of the market. A typical lawn care or landscaping business is small (often just 2–3 employees), reflecting the many independent operators and local crews in the field. LawnStarter industry brief, citing IBISWorld
The implication for marketing budgets is direct. With nearly 700,000 operators each spending some fraction of revenue on digital lead generation and brand visibility — the industry rule of thumb is 5–10% of annual revenue for sub‑$2M shops, falling to 1–2% for $10M+ firms6 — the aggregate spend on customer acquisition is enormous, and it is shared across an unusually long tail of competitors.
That fragmentation is why category umbrella brands matter more in landscaping than in industries with a clear top‑three. Nobody owns the noun "landscaping" in the consumer mind. The next note in this Journal covers how that fragmentation looks from the homeowner's side — the practical questions to ask when picking one of those 693,000 firms.
Where the growth is coming from
Three drivers explain the 6%+ CAGR through 2025. First, residential outdoor‑living spend has held up unusually well through the post‑2020 inflation cycle. The National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Landscape Professionals' Remodeling Impact Report flagged that homeowners are spending more, not less, on outdoor features, with cost‑recovery at resale ranging from 56% on full landscape upgrades to 100%+ on standard lawn care service.7 Second, commercial property managers are upgrading to meet ESG, water, and curb‑appeal targets. Third, private‑equity capital has been actively rolling up regional operators — Riverside Company's February 2024 investment in U.S. Lawns to scale a 250+ territory franchise footprint is one recent example.3
Counter‑pressures: labor remains the binding constraint. The industry uses more H‑2B seasonal work visas than any other sector — about 39% of the total nationally per LawnStarter's analysis of Department of Labor data. The median hourly wage for grounds maintenance workers was $18.50 in May 2024 (BLS), implying annual full‑time pay of roughly $38,500. Retention is structurally challenging, and equipment costs are rising as tariffs and regulatory shifts — California's gas‑powered equipment phase‑out, joined by 200+ municipalities — reshape capital expenditure.48
So what?
The takeaway from this brief is not a recommendation. It is a sizing exercise. Landscaping is a structurally large, structurally fragmented, structurally growing U.S. service category in which a $188.8 billion revenue pool is divided among nearly 700,000 firms that almost universally market themselves through video and search. That is the industry whose exact‑match category .TV domain sits behind this Journal.
The next two notes look at the practical side: how homeowners pick a landscaper from inside a fragmented market, and the part of the category most actively reshaping itself this decade — irrigation and water economics.
Sources & further reading
- IBISWorld, "Landscaping Services in the US — Industry Analysis," accessed May 2026 (market size $188.8B in 2026, ~693k businesses, 6.5% CAGR 2020–2025). ibisworld.com/united-states/industry/landscaping-services/1497/
- IBISWorld, "Landscaping Services in the US — Market Size 2005–2031," historical series page. ibisworld.com/united-states/market-size/landscaping-services/1497/
- Mordor Intelligence, "United States Landscaping Market — Size, Forecast Report, Trends 2030." mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/united-states-landscaping-market
- LawnStarter, "Lawn Care and Landscaping Industry Statistics," 2025–2026, citing IBISWorld. lawnstarter.com/blog/statistics/lawn-care-and-landscaping-industry-statistics
- BrightView Holdings, Inc., FY2025 Form 8‑K earnings release: total revenue $2,672.8M for fiscal year ended September 30, 2025. investor.brightview.com
- BigOrange.Marketing, "Landscaper Marketing: Green Industry Statistics," citing Landscape Leadership and Lawn & Landscape benchmark. bigorange.marketing/green-industry-statistics
- National Association of Realtors & National Association of Landscape Professionals, Remodeling Impact Report: Outdoor Features. nar.realtor
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook: Grounds Maintenance Workers (median hourly wage $18.50 in May 2024; ~1.3 million jobs). bls.gov
Figures in this article come from publicly available industry reports and government statistics. Where two sources gave slightly different totals we used the most recent figure available and noted the alternative in context.