Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Laundromat Revenue, Costs and Survival
A laundromat is a self-service laundry business: customers pay per load to wash and dry, and many locations add wash-and-fold or pickup and delivery. See average laundromat revenue per location, operating cost benchmarks and business survival data, with dates and sources shown for every figure.
Average Laundromat Revenue per Year Industry association estimate
The Coin Laundry Association estimates the number of US laundromat locations and their combined annual gross revenue. Dividing one by the other gives the average revenue per location.
≈$170,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per laundromat location
≈29,500
Laundromat locations operating in the United States
nearly $5 billion
Combined annual gross revenue, all laundromat locations
How this is calculated: nearly $5 billion in combined revenue divided by about 29,500 locations, both figures published by the Coin Laundry Association, works out to roughly $170,000. Both inputs are rounded, so the result is rounded too. Two honest warnings. This is an average per location, and averages get pulled up by big, busy stores, so a typical location may sit below it. And this is revenue, not profit: what the owner keeps comes after rent, utilities, and everything else. Operating cost data appears below.
Source Coin Laundry Association, Industry Overview · Vintage Not stated by source · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed July 2026
Source and definition
Do Businesses Like This Survive? Sector-level
Federal data does not track survival for laundromats specifically. The honest closest measure is the sector that contains them: Other Services (NAICS 81). Here is the most recent fully observed five-year cohort.
60.0 percent of Other Services establishments opened in the year ended March 2020 were still operating five years later. Five-year survival was similar across these two consecutive cohorts: 58.3 percent and 60.0 percent.
We found no federal dataset behind the widely repeated claim that 95 percent of laundromats survive five years. BLS does not publish survival at the laundromat level, which is exactly why this chart is labeled at the sector level instead of pretending otherwise.
Source US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 · Scope Other Services sector, national · Observed through March 2025
Source and definition
Laundromat Operating Cost Benchmarks Tax returns · Australia
Based on Australian Taxation Office data from 2023-24 tax returns, covering laundry and dry-cleaning businesses including coin-operated self-serve laundries. In the datasets we audited, no US federal source publishes a laundromat-specific expense benchmark; these Australian figures, in Australian dollars, are the closest tax-verified view of how costs behave in this business at different sizes.
| Annual turnover (AUD) | Total expenses to turnover | Average |
|---|---|---|
| $65,000 to $150,000 | 62% to 76% | 69% |
| $150,001 to $600,000 | 63% to 79% | 71% |
| More than $600,000 | 75% to 87% | 81% |
Key benchmark: total expenses as a share of annual turnover, by turnover band.
| Annual turnover (AUD) | Rent to turnover | Motor vehicle to turnover |
|---|---|---|
| $65,000 to $150,000 | 21% to 33% | 4% to 7% |
| $150,001 to $600,000 | 14% to 22% | 3% to 5% |
| More than $600,000 | 7% to 13% | 2% to 3% |
Read: rent is the heavy line item at small scale, taking up to a third of turnover in the smallest band, and its share falls as turnover grows. Not every business reports every expense line, so the tax office advises treating these as a guide.
Source Australian Taxation Office, Small Business Benchmarks · Year 2023-24 tax returns · Scope Laundry and dry-cleaning services, Australia
Source and definition
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Sources and Methodology
Every figure here carries a source, a year, and a scope, and where data exists only for a broader category, the label says so in plain words. Sector-level means the sector, not the laundromat.
None of the U.S. public datasets audited for this profile provides a median owner salary, so none appears here. Operator-contributed figures, when collected, will be shown separately with sample sizes, never blended with public sources. This page is educational statistics, not financial, legal, or investment advice.
Coming next after validation: typical SBA financing for this industry, receipts of US owner-operator laundries, IRS income structure, laundromat density by county, a startup cost model, and Canadian financial structure.
Read the full data standards, definitions, and corrections policy on the Business Benchmarks methodology page.
All sources on this page
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7, Other Services: bls.gov
Australian Taxation Office, Small Business Benchmarks, laundry and dry-cleaning services, 2023-24: ato.gov.au
Registered for upcoming sections: US Small Business Administration 7(a) FOIA files; US Census Bureau Economic Census, County Business Patterns, and Nonemployer Statistics; IRS Statistics of Income; ISED Canada Financial Performance Data.
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