The U.S. lawn care field spans direct grounds maintenance, landscaping services, related retail, tree work and turf management. The statistics below distinguish occupation counts from NAICS 561730 employer data and identify when measurements come from focused studies, program rules or forecasts.
Key Lawn Care Industry Statistics
The most useful high-level measures include:
- 1,299,200 U.S. grounds maintenance jobs were estimated for 2025.
- 1,188,600 U.S. landscaping and groundskeeping jobs were estimated for 2025.
- Grounds maintenance employment is projected to grow 5% in the United States from 2025 to 2035.
- About 162,500 grounds-maintenance openings per year are projected in the United States from 2025 through 2035.
- The median grounds-maintenance wage was $19.27 per hour in the United States in May 2025.
- NAICS 561730 landscaping services employed 915,720 workers in the United States in May 2023.
- The landscaping-services industry median hourly wage was $20.54 in the United States in May 2023.
- Grounds maintenance workers represented 615,330 jobs, or 67.20% of landscaping-services employment, in the United States in May 2023.
- Landscaping and groundskeeping workers represented 557,490 jobs, or 60.88% of landscaping-services employment, in the United States in May 2023.
- First-line landscaping supervisors represented 85,210 jobs, or 9.30% of landscaping-services employment, in the United States in May 2023.
- Services to buildings and dwellings employed 564,160 landscaping and groundskeeping workers, or 25.12% of that occupation, in the United States in May 2023.
- Residential lawn evapotranspiration measured 0.6–1.3 millimeters per day in humid cities in a six-city U.S. study published in 2023.
- Residential lawn evapotranspiration measured 2.2–3.6 millimeters per day in hot, dry cities in the same six-city U.S. study.
- The USDA Forest Service lawn-water study visited 79 households across six U.S. cities.
- A Colorado comparison assigned a 0.81 crop coefficient to traditionally managed Kentucky bluegrass, according to a study cited by EPA.
- A 2021 landscaping-services injury and illness rate was 3.2 cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers in the United States.
- Grounds-maintenance fatalities averaged 16.6 per 100,000 full-time-equivalent workers in the United States from 2016 through 2020.
- More than 80% of fatally injured Hispanic grounds-maintenance workers were foreign-born in the cited U.S. study covering 2016–2020.
Contents
- Workforce scale and lawn care job outlook
- Landscaping services employment and wages
- Labor mix, management and pay
- Residential lawn water use and climate
- Turfgrass management, exposure and safety
Lawn Care Industry Workforce Scale and Job Outlook
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) estimated about 1,299,200 U.S. jobs in grounds maintenance occupations in 2025. Within that broad occupational grouping, landscaping and groundskeeping workers accounted for 1,188,600 jobs, while vegetation pesticide handlers, sprayers and applicators accounted for 25,700, tree trimmers and pruners for 70,600, and other detailed grounds-maintenance categories for 14,200.
These are occupation-level estimates, not a complete count of every lawn business or worker. The BLS estimate excludes some self-employed and household workers.
| Measure | U.S. estimate | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Grounds maintenance occupations | 1,299,200 jobs | 2025 |
| Landscaping and groundskeeping workers | 1,188,600 jobs | 2025 |
| Tree trimmers and pruners | 70,600 jobs | 2025 |
| Vegetation pesticide handlers, sprayers and applicators | 25,700 jobs | 2025 |
The BLS projects grounds-maintenance employment to rise 5%, or by 60,100 jobs, from 2025 to 2035. Landscaping and groundskeeping employment is also projected to grow 5% over that period, while average annual openings are projected at about 162,500; that openings figure includes replacement needs as well as newly created jobs.
The median hourly wage for grounds maintenance workers was $19.27 in May 2025. This wage excludes self-employed workers, agricultural workers and private-household workers, so it should not be treated as the revenue or profit of a lawn-care company.
Source: Grounds Maintenance Workers: Occupational Outlook Handbook, BLS.
Landscaping Services Employment and Wage Statistics
NAICS 561730 is the BLS industry category for landscaping services. Its May 2023 employer survey counted 915,720 workers and reported a $20.54 median hourly wage, a $22.56 mean hourly wage and a $46,920 mean annual wage under the BLS full-time, year-round convention.
| NAICS 561730 measure | May 2023 result |
|---|---|
| Employment | 915,720 workers |
| Median hourly wage | $20.54 |
| Mean hourly wage | $22.56 |
| Mean annual wage | $46,920 |
The industry category is broader than lawn mowing alone, and the employer survey excludes self-employed workers. Its employment profile shows how much of the measured workforce is concentrated in hands-on maintenance: building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations represented 703,880 jobs, or 76.87% of industry employment.
Grounds maintenance workers represented 615,330 jobs, or 67.20% of the industry. The narrower landscaping and groundskeeping occupation represented 557,490 jobs, or 60.88%, and had a median hourly wage of $18.21 and a mean annual wage of $40,490.
Source: May 2023 National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: NAICS 561730 Landscaping Services, BLS.
Lawn Care Labor Mix, Management Roles and Pay
The NAICS 561730 profile also captures the supervisory, executive and sales work required to deliver landscaping services. Management occupations represented 36,720 jobs, or 4.01% of industry employment, while top executives represented 30,850 jobs, or 3.37%.
- Chief executives had a median hourly wage of $75.49 and a mean annual wage of $186,440 in May 2023; this was a small detailed-occupation estimate with a 14.6% employment relative standard error.
- General and operations managers represented 30,580 jobs, or 3.34% of industry employment, and had a mean annual wage of $90,760 in May 2023.
- First-line supervisors of landscaping, lawn service and groundskeeping workers represented 85,210 jobs, or 9.30% of industry employment, with a $25.00 median hourly wage, $27.36 mean hourly wage and $56,910 mean annual wage in May 2023.
- Sales and related occupations represented 26,550 jobs, or 2.90% of industry employment, with a $26.47 median hourly wage and $58,920 mean annual wage in May 2023.
Occupation-based industry data also show where landscaping and groundskeeping workers are employed. Services to buildings and dwellings employed 564,160 such workers, or 25.12% of the occupation, in May 2023.
Lawn and garden equipment and supplies retailers employed 7,660 landscaping and groundskeeping workers, or 3.96% of the occupation, with a mean annual wage of $38,160. These figures describe the worker’s industry of employment, not the total size of retail lawn-equipment sales.
Source: May 2023 National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates: NAICS 561730 Landscaping Services and Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2023: 37-3011 Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers, BLS.
Residential Lawn Water-Use Statistics and Climate Trends
Water demand varies substantially by climate and is best interpreted as evapotranspiration rather than as a universal irrigation requirement. A USDA Forest Service study published in 2023 measured residential lawns across six U.S. cities and visited 79 households.
| Study setting | Measured lawn evapotranspiration | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Humid cities | 0.6–1.3 mm per day | Six-city U.S. study |
| Hot, dry cities | 2.2–3.6 mm per day | Six-city U.S. study |
The humid-city range and hot, dry-city range came from field observations, not a national household average. Local weather, lawn conditions and management practices remain important when applying the results.
EPA’s cited research also uses crop coefficients to compare plant water demand. One Colorado study found an average coefficient of 0.56 for 15 commonly planted landscape shrubs, while its comparison assigned 0.81 to a typical Kentucky bluegrass lawn under traditional management.
Other EPA examples are specific trials or program benchmarks. A Southern California groundcover study reported acceptable appearance at 33% of reference evapotranspiration with proper irrigation and soil maintenance, but it involved six groundcover species rather than turfgrass; a San Francisco young-oak trial found no growth effect after one year at 0%, 25% or 50% of ETo applications.
Source: Evapotranspiration of Residential Lawns Across the United States, USDA Forest Service, and Research Report on Turfgrass Allowance, EPA.
Turfgrass Management, Exposure and Safety Statistics
Safety statistics cover the wider landscaping-services and grounds-maintenance workforce, not only residential lawn mowing. BLS reported a 2021 landscaping-services injury and illness rate of 3.2 cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers, compared with 2.7 cases per 100 FTEs for all private industries; the CDC/NIOSH source describes the difference as 18.5% higher.
The cited fatality study found an average rate of 16.6 deaths per 100,000 FTEs among U.S. grounds-maintenance workers from 2016 through 2020, compared with 3.5 per 100,000 FTEs for all U.S. workers. More than 80% of fatally injured Hispanic grounds-maintenance workers in that study were foreign-born.
Noise exposure findings come from smaller related samples and should not be generalized to every lawn-care job:
- In a 2010 study of 20 urban tree-service workers, 95% were exposed above the 85-dBA NIOSH/OSHA threshold, 20% never wore hearing protection, and 15% were covered by an employer hearing-conservation program.
- Measured eight-hour time-weighted-average noise exposure among university groundskeepers ranged from 67.2 to 102.9 dBA across cited studies.
- In a 2020 study of 17 road-maintenance workers during brush cutting, average eight-hour TWA exposure was 90.8 dBA, while one-minute tool-noise averages ranged from 90.3 to 92.1 dBA.
The CDC/NIOSH source also cites an estimate that two-stroke engine carbon-monoxide emissions accounted for 4.8% of total U.S. carbon-monoxide emissions in 2005. That estimate applies to two-stroke engines broadly, not lawn care alone.
Water-conservation programs likewise need careful labeling. EPA’s WaterSmart Home example limited Las Vegas backyard turf to 50% of landscapable area and no more than 1,000 square feet, while East Bay Municipal Utility District’s WaterSmart program limited turf to no more than 25% of total irrigated area; these are program rules, not measured homeowner adoption.
Source: Hazardous exposures and engineering controls in the landscaping services industry, CDC/NIOSH.