Business Data & Benchmarks · United States

Garden Center Revenue Benchmark

Retailers selling plants, seeds, garden supplies and farm inputs to households and growers.

NAICS 444240, 2022 editionUnited States data by defaultSources and dates shown

Average Garden Center Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every garden center with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing one by the other gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment below.

≈$3,709,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

14,427

Employer establishments in the United States, 2022

as published $53.5 billion

Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022

How this is calculated: about $53.5 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 14,427 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $3,709,000 per employer establishment. A seasonal nursery and a year-round farm supply store are averaged together in that figure.

Scope: Nursery, Garden Center, and Farm Supply Retailers, NAICS 444240. Classified separately in group 4442: 444230 Outdoor Power Equipment Retailers. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed July 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Smaller cohort

Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers, NAICS 4442, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

72.5%the year-five count as a share of the starting count

Five-year establishment continuation benchmarkLine chart of industry continuation: 86.9 percent at 1 year, 82.4 percent at 2 years, 80.0 percent at 3 years, 78.0 percent at 4 years, 72.5 percent at 5 years. 735 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.100%75%50%25%0%2014-2018 cohort range: 66.8 to 72.5 percentStart: 100 percent, the starting count1 year: 86.9 percent of the starting count2 years: 82.4 percent of the starting count3 years: 80.0 percent of the starting count4 years: 78.0 percent of the starting count5 years: 72.5 percent of the starting count86.982.480.078.072.5Start1 year2 years3 years4 years5 years735 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.
Five years on, this industry group counted about 72 establishments aged five for every 100 that first reported paid employment in 2018. Census compares counts by age rather than following the same businesses, so read it as a broad continuation indicator for the industry group, not as a tracked survival rate.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 66.8 to 72.5 percent. This benchmark covers Lawn and Garden Equipment and Supplies Retailers, NAICS 4442, as a whole, and this category accounts for 14,427 of the 18,520 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

MeasureValue
Annual payroll share of receipts, United States≈10%

Payroll share of receipts, Nursery, Garden Center, and Farm Supply Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 10.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, which is low because revenue here is the value of goods sold, and stock is the dominant purchase.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish cost of goods for this table, so nothing here shows what a store keeps.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

MeasureValue
Paid employees per employer establishment11
Employer establishments per firm1.4

Scale and ownership, Nursery, Garden Center, and Farm Supply Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 11.0 people, and the industry counted 1.4 employer establishments per firm.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Garden Center: where the figures stop being useful.

Before you rely on this benchmark

  • How long is the selling season? For plant-led operators in seasonal climates, a large share of annual revenue can arrive during the spring selling period, while farm-supply and year-round models may follow a different pattern.
  • What is the shrink rate on living stock? Plants die. Bedding and other perishable stock cannot be carried to another season, and that loss never appears on a revenue line, while nursery stock can be held at the cost of the ground it occupies.
  • Is there a farm supply or hard goods side? Feed, fencing and equipment sell year-round and steady a business that plants alone would leave violently seasonal.
  • What does a bad spring cost? A cold wet spring is hard to make up later, because the buying weeks have passed rather than moved.
  • How much space does slow stock occupy? Trees and shrubs held for a second season occupy ground that could carry faster lines, and that opportunity cost never appears as a loss.
  • Who answers questions at peak? Customers arrive with questions in the weeks when the aisles are fullest, and seasonal hires cannot always answer them.

Explore More on BusinessNES

Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.

Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Sources and Methodology

Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.

The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each staffed store rather than each company, and seasonal hiring is not visible in an annual figure.