Crowded and growing
Remodelers rose 13.6 percent and real estate agents 14.8 percent since 2017 while already crowded. More rivals every year means fresh pages and reviews matter more.
A trade-by-trade count of the Cook County economy 
5.0 Rating on Google
Cook County IL Business Landscape: How Crowded, How Big and How Fast Each Trade Is Changing
A county of more than 5 million residents has trades so crowded that ranking a page is a contest and others so thin that a good page can lead. This Cook County IL business landscape counts fifteen trades by Census employer locations, compares each with a typical U.S. county and shows what changed since 2017. GetPhound uses these counts to decide how much search, paid advertising and website work a trade should expect to need.
5.0 Rating on Google- 134,846Employer locations, 2022
- 2,441,203Employees at those locations
- 5,087,072Residents, 2023 estimate
- 2,261,319Housing units
- -3.6 percentPopulation change, 2020 to 2023
Reading the counts
What These Counts Say About a County of More Than 5 Million
The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns counted 134,846 employer locations in Cook County in 2022, with 2,441,203 employees. Those figures include only businesses with staff, so sole proprietors, side jobs and gig drivers are not in them. The survey is a snapshot, and the counts below compare 2022 with 2017. Read together, the table and the notes around it make up the Cook County business landscape for your trade.
The table that follows compares each trade with the typical county of 20,000 or more residents. A figure of 2.7 times a typical county does not mean a trade is oversupplied. It means more businesses chase the same customer, which raises the bar for ranking and the price of a click. A figure under 1 means fewer businesses per resident, which can be an opening for a trade with a good site and a strong Google Maps listing.
All fifteen trades
Employer Locations in Cook County, Trade by Trade, Against a Typical County
The column that says per 10,000 residents uses the 2023 population estimate of 5,087,072.
| Trade | Employer locations | Per 10,000 residents | Against a typical county | Locations under 10 staff | Locations with 20+ staff | Change from 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential remodelers | 2,901 | 5.7 | 1.8 times | 98 of 100 | 27 | +13.6 percent |
| Roofing contractors | 352 | 0.7 | 0.8 times | 86 of 100 | 32 | +14.7 percent |
| Electrical contractors | 1,013 | 2 | 0.9 times | 80 of 100 | 117 | -1.8 percent |
| Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors | 1,400 | 2.8 | 0.9 times | 81 of 100 | 130 | +4.9 percent |
| Insurance agencies and brokerages | 2,115 | 4.2 | 1.2 times | 89 of 100 | 126 | -6.5 percent |
| Real estate agents and brokers | 2,478 | 4.9 | 1.7 times | 95 of 100 | 56 | +14.8 percent |
| Law offices | 4,014 | 7.9 | 2.7 times | 85 of 100 | 322 | -6.8 percent |
| Accounting and CPA firms | 1,014 | 2 | 1.5 times | 86 of 100 | 68 | -8.3 percent |
| Janitorial services | 1,083 | 2.1 | 1.2 times | 81 of 100 | 111 | +3.2 percent |
| Landscaping services | 1,270 | 2.5 | 0.7 times | 92 of 100 | 40 | +5.7 percent |
| Physicians offices | 2,849 | 5.6 | 1.4 times | 73 of 100 | 393 | -15 percent |
| Dentists | 2,777 | 5.5 | 1.9 times | 81 of 100 | 92 | -3.5 percent |
| Full-service restaurants | 4,260 | 8.4 | 1.2 times | 48 of 100 | 1,360 | +1.1 percent |
| General automotive repair | 1,452 | 2.9 | 1.1 times | 93 of 100 | 29 | -1 percent |
| Beauty salons | 1,551 | 3 | 1.6 times | 87 of 100 | 73 | +4.4 percent |
Source: Census Bureau County Business Patterns, 2022 set beside 2017. Only businesses with employees are counted, so self-employed owners do not appear. A typical county is the median among counties of 20,000 or more residents.
Crowded
Where the Competition Is Densest and What That Means for the Bid
Law offices lead the list, with 4,014 locations at 2.7 times the typical county, and the count fell 6.8 percent since 2017. Dentists follow at 1.9 times, remodelers at 1.8, real estate agents at 1.7, beauty salons at 1.6 and accounting firms at 1.5. These are the trades where a general search is a hard fight, and where a specific service, a specific village or a specific language is often the more winnable target.
Many of these trades are made of very small shops. Of every 100 remodeler locations, 98 have fewer than 10 staff, and the same is true of 95 of every 100 real estate locations. Small shops rarely have a marketing department, which is why a clear site and a consistent Google Maps profile go a long way. Restaurants are the opposite: only 48 of every 100 restaurant locations are that small, and 1,360 have 20 or more staff.
Four corners of the table
Crowded, Thin, Growing and Shrinking: Where Each Trade Stands
Thin and growing
Roofing rose 14.7 percent from a low base of 352 locations, landscaping rose 5.7 percent and plumbing and HVAC rose 4.9 percent. Per resident they are still below a typical county, so one strong page can lead.
Crowded and shrinking
Law offices fell 6.8 percent, accounting firms 8.3, insurance agencies 6.5 and dentists 3.5. Fewer locations does not mean less competition for the best search spots.
Shrinking and large
Physician offices fell 15 percent but still count 393 locations with 20 or more staff, the largest bunch after restaurants. Many are probably group practices and health-system sites rather than solo offices.
New homes
New Housing Units Authorized in Cook County, 2021 to 2025
Permits swing a good deal from year to year, from 4,854 in the lowest year to 8,325 in the highest.
| Year | New homes authorized |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 6,789 |
| 2022 | 8,325 |
| 2023 | 4,854 |
| 2024 | 6,507 |
| 2025 | 5,308 |
Source: Census Bureau Building Permits Survey, new privately owned housing units authorized by permit.
Homes and trades
What About 6,400 New Homes a Year Means for Remodelers, Roofers and Landscapers
Over the five years from 2021 to 2025 the county authorized about 6,400 new residential units a year on average. That is small beside the 2,261,319 homes that already stand here, so most work for remodelers, roofers, electricians and landscapers comes from existing housing, not new construction. The stock is also varied across Chicago and the suburbs, and 42.5 percent of households rent.
That changes the marketing. A remodeler is selling to homeowners who compare two or three bids. A landscaper is selling to a suburban household, often through a neighbor's recommendation. A roofer is selling in the weeks after a storm. Each of these starts with a different page, which is where the seasonal content plan and the coverage map come in.
The open rows
Four Trades Where the County Has Fewer Businesses Per Resident Than a Typical One
Four of the fifteen rows sit below 1.0 against a typical county: landscaping at 0.7 times, roofing at 0.8, plumbing, heating and air-conditioning at 0.9 and electrical at 0.9. In Cook County that still means 1,270 landscaping locations, 1,400 plumbing and HVAC locations and 1,013 electrical ones, so nobody is alone. What changes is the odds. A thin row means a well-built page for a specific service and village has a fair chance of reaching page one without the cost of a crowded auction.
Those same trades are the most seasonal. Cold snaps, thunderstorm weeks and the spring cleanup all arrive in bursts, and customers search at the moment of need. For businesses in these rows, the work is to have the right pages and the Google Maps listing in place before the burst, then add ads for the weeks when the phones matter most. Our Google Ads and Google Maps pages go into how each one is set up.
The customer side
The Households Behind the Trades, Against a Typical Illinois and U.S. County
Counts of businesses only tell half the story. These figures describe the households and the density the trades sell into.
| Measure | Cook County | Typical Illinois county | Typical U.S. county |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $78,304 | $63,737 | $60,522 |
| Median monthly rent | $1,318 | $766 | $818 |
| Renter households | 42.5 percent | 23.3 percent | 26.1 percent |
| Adults with a bachelor's degree | 41.3 percent | 20.3 percent | 21.1 percent |
| Residents per square mile | 5,530 per square mile | 46 per square mile | 47 per square mile |
Source: Census Bureau ACS 5-year estimates for 2018 to 2022. Typical means the median county.
Households
How Income, Rent and Density Change the Marketing for Every Row
Median household income in Cook County is $78,304, median rent is $1,318 and 42.5 percent of households rent, far above a typical county. Density is 5,530 per square mile, so a service van can serve many customers in a small area. For a business that sells to households across Cook County, Illinois, this means a large share of customers do not own the building they live in. A landlord or property manager often makes the call to a plumber, an electrician or a cleaner, so the buyer may be a property manager searching for a vendor, not a resident.
41.3 percent of adults have a bachelor's degree, which fits a research-heavy buying style for services such as dental care, legal help and remodeling. These customers read reviews, compare two or three businesses and check the website before calling. That is the reason crowded rows reward clear pages and a strong review profile, and why online marketing that keeps the listing, the site and the reviews consistent often matters more than one extra ad.
Using the counts
How We Turn This Table Into a Plan
Find your row
Look up your trade. Note how many locations there are, how crowded it is against a typical county and whether it grew or shrank.
Choose the right fight
In a crowded row we aim at a specific service or place rather than a broad term. In a thin row a broad page can lead.
Match the channel to the size mix
Rows with many large employers often have buyers who compare several bids. Rows full of small shops reward a clean site and consistent reviews.
Check the neighbors
Compare adjacent trades. A remodeler and a roofer share the same homeowner, so digital marketing that serves both can share pages and listings.
Revisit every season
The survey is a snapshot, so we also watch your own inquiries and let those results update the plan.
Questions
Fair Questions About What the Employer Counts Can and Cannot Say
Does the Cook County trade table add to the monthly plans, and what do the plans cost?
The counts are part of the monthly plan we build with you. RankGuarantee™ landing pages are $495 a month, Organic Growth starts at $1,495 a month and paid ads management starts at $895 a month, with ad spend extra. No setup fee, no contract.
What survey years does the table rest on, and is any of it live?
They come from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns for 2017 and 2022 and the Building Permits Survey, with resident counts from the American Community Survey for 2018 to 2022. They are survey years, not live counts, and they cover employer locations only. Use them to judge scale and direction, and let your own inquiry data fill in the rest.
If my trade shows a high ratio, is the county saturated for me?
No. It means there are more locations per resident than in a typical county, and a county like Cook has a big, dense and varied population to feed them. The ratio helps decide how specific your pages and ads need to be, not whether you should be in the trade or whether customers exist.
Why do some trades shrink while construction grows?
Employer counts shift for many reasons: consolidation, group practices absorbing small offices, closures and owners moving to self-employment that the survey does not count. A drop in locations is not always a loss of customers, and a rise is not always an opening, so we read each row alongside your own data.
What should I do with the staff-size columns?
If nearly every location in your trade has fewer than 10 staff, rivals are small shops and a clear site and strong reviews carry weight. If many have 20 or more, expect larger marketing budgets from some rivals and plan paid ads and service pages with that in mind. The size mix tells you who you are really bidding against.
My trade is not one of the fifteen. Can you still use this?
The table covers fifteen trades the Census tracks well. If yours is missing, send us the name and we will look at related counts and your own search data to give you a similar picture for Cook County, Illinois, even if it is less tidy than the table above.
Explore more
More Ways Local Businesses Get Found Here
Start Here
- Search Engine OptimizationSearch names across the city, the suburbs and the airports, which pages to build for each, and how to choose an SEO company.
- Digital MarketingA first 90 days for three kinds of Chicago-area business, tied to the trades and travel patterns of a very large county.
- Online MarketingAn audit of the name, address, reviews and pages a customer meets before calling, written for a county where addresses and place names collide.
- Search Engine Optimization and Online MarketingWhere search work leads, how paid ads and the website back it up, and the order to cover the suburbs and the city in.
Get Found in Search
- Google Maps and Local SEOBusiness Profile setup for one door, a service area or many locations, written around municipalities, mailing towns and airports.
- AI Search OptimizationHow assistants answer questions about the city, the suburbs and the airports, and what to publish so they can quote your business.
Paid Advertising
- Google Ads ManagementZone-by-zone Google Ads for a county where the account has to cover the city, the ring and the people who arrive by air.
- PPC ManagementPay-per-click in a county with some of the most crowded trades in the country, and how to decide when paid should go first.
- Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram)Audiences, offers and event timing for Meta Ads in a county of renters, families, new arrivals and festival crowds.
Website and Content
- Lead GenerationWhere inquiries come from when customers live nearby, ride in on Metra or land at an airport, and how to track each source.
- Website DesignA website plan for a business that serves many villages, Chicago sides and transit stops, with fast mobile calling and directions.
- Content MarketingA publishing plan tied to lake-effect snow, sewer-backup storms, festival weeks and the place names Chicagoland actually uses.
Around the County
- Marketing by AreaA service-area order for a county of about 130 municipalities, with the five Chicago sides, the suburb belts and the expressways that join them.
- Local Business Landscape (you are here)How crowded, how large and how fast-changing fifteen trades are across a county of more than 5 million residents.
Get in Touch
Tell Us Which Row of the Table Is Yours
Name your trade and where you work in the county. We will tell you how crowded it is and what to build first. Call 610-825-4363 or email hello@getphound.com.