Choosing what to compare
The comparer has three boxes. The first and second county are required; the industry is optional. Every change redraws the result at once and updates the address bar, so a comparison can be bookmarked or sent as a link. The ⇄ button swaps the two sides, which flips the sign of every difference.
You can also start from a county page. Each one has a “Compare” link that opens the comparer with that county in the first box and its most similar county, by industry mix, in the second.
Example 1: two big metro counties
The default comparison is Hillsborough County (Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL metro area) and Orange County (Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL metro area). The headline sentence states the main result in words:
Hillsborough County pays $9,459 more per job than Orange County: $67,804 a year on average against $58,345. Orange County has 1.2 times as many jobs.
| All industries | Hillsborough | Orange | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business establishments | Hillsborough42,9775th of 67 | Orange45,5884th of 67 | Difference−2,611 |
| Employees | Hillsborough697,6894th of 67 | Orange842,0282nd of 67 | Difference−144,339 |
| Annual payroll | Hillsborough$47.31 billion4th of 67 | Orange$49.13 billion2nd of 67 | Difference−$1.82 billion |
| Average annual pay | Hillsborough$67,8043rd of 67 | Orange$58,34510th of 67 | Difference+$9,459 |
| Residents | Hillsborough1,557,3134th of 67 | Orange1,501,2655th of 67 | Difference+56,048 |
| Jobs per 1,000 residents | Hillsborough4484th of 67 | Orange5611st of 67 | Difference−113 |
| Payroll per resident | Hillsborough$30,3773rd of 67 | Orange$32,7241st of 67 | Difference−$2,347 |
| Employees per establishment | Hillsborough16.24th of 67 | Orange18.51st of 67 | Difference−2.3 |
| Job change since 2019 | Hillsborough+10.9%29th of 67 | Orange+9.0%36th of 67 | Difference+1.9 pts |
| Largest industry | HillsboroughHealth care 14.2% of jobs | OrangeHotels & restaurants 15.2% of jobs | Difference— |
| Area | HillsboroughTampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL metro area | OrangeOrlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL metro area | Difference— |
Read the rows in pairs of value and rank. Hillsborough pays $9,459 more per job on average (3rd of 67 against 10th), while Orange has more jobs and establishments. The largest-industry row points to one reason: Orange's biggest employer is hotels and restaurants, one of the lowest-paying sectors, while Hillsborough's is health care and social assistance.
The per-resident rows add a second view. Hillsborough has 448 jobs per 1,000 residents (4th of 67) and Orange 561 (1st). CBP counts a job where the business is, not where the worker lives, so a county that people commute into scores higher on this row than one they commute out of. Open this comparison.
Example 2: one industry in two similar counties
Choosing an industry adds a table for that sector alone. Leon County and Alachua County are close in size (107,646 and 103,368 jobs). Here they are in health care and social assistance:
In health care and social assistance, Alachua County pays $6,454 more per job than Leon County: $68,443 against $61,989. Alachua County has 1.5 times as many jobs in the industry.
| Health care & social assistance | Leon | Alachua | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Establishments | Leon886 | Alachua948 | Difference−62 |
| Employees | Leon20,06219th of 67 counties | Alachua29,21513th of 67 counties | Difference−9,153 |
| Average annual pay | Leon$61,98925th of 66 counties | Alachua$68,4435th of 66 counties | Difference−$6,454 |
| Share of county jobs | Leon18.6% | Alachua28.3% | Difference−9.6 pts |
| Location quotient | Leon1.17× | Alachua1.78× | Difference−0.61 |
| Pay vs same industry statewide | Leon0.96× | Alachua1.06× | Difference−0.10 |
Alachua has 29,215 health-care jobs against Leon's 20,062, and they make up 28.3% of its private jobs compared with 18.6%. The location quotient puts that in context: 1.78× means the sector is 1.78 times as common in Alachua as across the 67 counties. “Pay vs same industry statewide” compares the county's sector pay with the Florida average for the same sector. The rank lines say where each county stands among those where the sector is published (jobs) or has at least 100 jobs (pay). Open this comparison.
In industry mode the industry mix chart below the tables highlights the chosen sector, so you can see how it sits among the county's other industries.
Example 3: when figures are withheld
Small counties show gaps. Glades County has 12 of 19 industries published; mining and quarrying, utilities, wholesale trade, the information sector and others are withheld. When you pick a withheld industry, its cells read “withheld”, the difference column shows a dash, and the headline says which county is missing. Withheld means the Census Bureau did not publish the number to protect a business; it does not mean zero. In the industry mix chart those rows are hatched.
Ranks and averages in counties this size also move more with a single employer. Treat a gap of a few thousand dollars between two small counties with caution. Try a small-county comparison.
What each row means
Business establishments are physical locations with paid staff. Employees are counted in mid-March. Annual payroll is a full year of wages and average pay is payroll divided by employees, so part-time work lowers it. Residents are the July 1 population estimate. Employees per establishment is a rough guide to business size. Job change since 2019 compares March 2023 with March 2019. The difference column always subtracts the second county from the first; percentages are differenced in percentage points (“pts”).
All figures come from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns and population estimates. They cover private employers only and are in nominal dollars. The comparer computes nothing beyond differences and ranks: it does not judge which county is better for any purpose, and it is not job, salary, business-location or investment advice. For the definitions in more depth, see how to read County Business Patterns figures.
Data as of: 2023 County Business Patterns (released 2025); population July 1, 2023 (Vintage 2024 estimates); retrieved October 27, 2026. Dollar amounts are nominal (not adjusted for inflation). Statistics for general information, not career, business or investment advice.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (county and state files). www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/datasets/2023/
- U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2022 and 2019 (comparison years). www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp/datasets/
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, county totals Vintage 2024 (2022, 2023) and Vintage 2019 (2019). www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/
- U.S. Census Bureau / OMB, Core Based Statistical Area delineation file, July 2023 (OMB Bulletin 23-01). www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/metro-micro/geographies/reference-files/2023/delineation-files/list1_2023.xlsx