The US lawn care market reached $62.91 billion in 2026 and is forecast to top $79.68 billion by 2031, a 4.85% compound annual growth rate, according to the latest Mordor Intelligence sizing of the segment. That puts lawn care, the recurring fertilization, weed control, mowing, and aeration slice, on a faster growth track than the broader US economy, and ahead of the average price increases homeowners absorbed for groceries and home services last year.
The short version
- US lawn care market: $62.91B in 2026, projected $79.68B by 2031 (Mordor Intelligence)
- Compound annual growth rate of 4.85% through 2031, outpacing US GDP growth
- Top five operators by share: BrightView, Davey Tree, TruGreen, Ruppert Landscape, Gothic Landscaping
- Total combined US landscape and lawn services market sits near $196B in 2026
- Recurring residential contracts and HOA accounts remain the highest-margin work
- Labor (H-2A and domestic), fuel, and fertilizer input costs are the three biggest 2026 margin pressures
What the new sizing tells us
Mordor Intelligence published its 2026 to 2031 US lawn care market sizing in the first quarter of this year, putting the addressable market at $62.91 billion for 2026 and forecasting it climbs to $79.68 billion by the end of 2031. The headline number covers chemical lawn care (fertilization, pre-emergent and post-emergent herbicide rounds, fungicide, insecticide, grub control), routine maintenance (mow, edge, blow), aeration and overseeding, and the non-irrigation side of turf renovation. It does not include hardscape, irrigation install, or design-build, which sit inside the broader landscape services category.
The 4.85% CAGR is meaningfully higher than the 2018 to 2023 trend rate. Two structural factors are driving the lift. First, residential customer acquisition costs have come down as the major chains finished their digital and call-center build-out, which made it cheaper to convert a curious homeowner into a five-application annual contract. Second, the boomer-to-millennial homeownership handoff is producing a customer cohort that outsources lawn work at a higher rate than the generation it replaces.
Why it matters for operators
For a $5M independent operator, the takeaway is that the rising tide is real but uneven. The same Mordor report flags that share is concentrating at the top, with the five largest US lawn care operators (BrightView Holdings, Davey Tree Expert Company, TruGreen Limited Partnership, Ruppert Landscape, and Gothic Landscaping) controlling a steadily growing share of the commercial side. On the residential side, TruGreen alone is the dominant national brand for fertilization and weed control, supported by a national call-center model that independents cannot match on raw lead-routing scale.
That does not mean independents lose. It means the playable lanes are getting more specific. High-end residential, organic and pesticide-free programs, native-plant maintenance, and HOA bundled contracts (mow plus chemical plus irrigation tech) are growing faster than the commodity mow-and-blow segment. Operators who can package an annual contract that includes a soil test, two fertilization rounds, three weed control rounds, and a fall aeration ride the recurring-revenue side of the growth curve. Operators stuck on single-visit mowing do not.
By the numbers
| Metric | 2026 | 2031 forecast | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| US lawn care market | $62.91B | $79.68B | Mordor Intelligence |
| US lawn care CAGR (2026 to 2031) | 4.85% | 4.85% | Mordor Intelligence |
| US landscape services market (broader) | $196B | $255B | Mordor Intelligence |
| BrightView completed acquisitions to date | 34 | n/a | BrightView IR |
| TruGreen US residential customer count | ~2.3M | n/a | TruGreen About |
The competitive set
The market is unusual in that the largest commercial operator (BrightView) and the largest residential operator (TruGreen) barely overlap. BrightView, publicly traded on the NYSE under ticker BV, runs the commercial-grounds maintenance contracts for HOAs, office parks, hospitals, and retail. Davey Tree is employee-owned and dominates the tree care and utility line-clearance side, with residential lawn care as a secondary line. TruGreen runs residential lawn fertilization and weed control through its national call-center operating model. Ruppert Landscape, also employee-owned, takes the high-end commercial maintenance and landscape construction work along the I-95 corridor. Gothic Landscaping is the largest commercial maintenance operator in the southwest.
Below the top five, the next tier is local and regional operators in the $10M to $75M revenue range, many of which are private-equity backed roll-up platforms. The largest of those platforms have been busy with bolt-on M&A through 2025 and into 2026, and our coverage of lawn and landscape private equity in 2026 tracks that activity in detail.
Input cost picture for 2026
The growth rate is real but operators are running into three input-cost headwinds. Labor is the biggest. The federal H-2A wage rate (the Adverse Effect Wage Rate) climbed again in 2026, and crew-level domestic wages in the southeast and southwest are now running 8% to 12% above 2024 levels. Fuel costs are flat to modestly down, which helps. Fertilizer and herbicide input costs are split: urea and ammonium-based nitrogen sources are cheaper than the 2022 peak, while glyphosate has stayed elevated because of supply discipline at Bayer and ongoing legal-settlement reserves. Operators who price their chemical work on a cost-plus basis have absorbed most of that, but operators on annual flat-rate contracts felt it.
For the practical impact on the homeowner side of the equation, our 2026 lawn care cost guide walks through what those input cost moves mean for a typical five-application annual program. Operators looking to update their pricing models can also check our professional lawn fertilizer guide for the input-cost benchmarks we update quarterly.
FAQ
How big is the US lawn care market in 2026?
The US lawn care market is sized at $62.91 billion in 2026 by Mordor Intelligence, growing at a 4.85% CAGR to a forecast $79.68 billion by 2031.
Who are the largest US lawn care companies in 2026?
The top five US lawn care and landscape operators by share are BrightView Holdings (commercial), Davey Tree Expert Company (tree and utility), TruGreen Limited Partnership (residential chemical), Ruppert Landscape (high-end commercial), and Gothic Landscaping (southwest commercial).
Is the lawn care market growing faster than the rest of landscaping?
Yes, modestly. The US lawn care segment is growing at about 4.85% per year through 2031. The broader US landscape services market (which includes hardscape, irrigation install, and design-build) is growing at about 5.46% per year. Lawn care has the more reliable recurring-revenue profile, even at the slightly lower headline growth rate.
What are the biggest cost pressures on operators in 2026?
Labor, fuel, and chemical inputs, in that order. The federal H-2A Adverse Effect Wage Rate increase and tight domestic labor have pushed crew wages up 8% to 12% from 2024 levels. Glyphosate has stayed expensive because of Bayer supply discipline and ongoing legal reserves tied to the Roundup litigation.
How the residential and commercial sides differ
The $62.9 billion headline number combines two different businesses with different unit economics. Residential lawn care is the higher-volume side by customer count, with annual programs typically running in the $400 to $1,400 range for a standard suburban lot depending on region. The customer-acquisition cost is the biggest single line item on the residential side. Operators win or lose on referral rates, first-year retention, and the attach rate for upgrades like aeration, mosquito control, and tree-and-shrub care.
Commercial lawn and landscape maintenance is the higher-revenue side per customer, with annual contracts typically running from $20,000 for a small HOA up to several hundred thousand dollars for a multi-property retail or hospital portfolio. The customer-acquisition cost per dollar of revenue is lower, but the bid-to-win cycles are longer and the contract margins are tighter. Route density is the single biggest driver of unit economics on the commercial side, which is why the BrightView roll-up has focused on bolting on regional operators with strong route density in target metros.
What’s driving the 4.85% growth rate
Three structural forces are behind the projected 4.85% CAGR through 2031. First, US household formation is back to a healthy pace, with single-family housing starts running ahead of 2019 trend after the 2022 to 2023 lull. New single-family homes are the entry point for residential lawn care contracts, and the pipeline of new addressable households is the most reliable forward-looking indicator we track.
Second, the share of homeowners who outsource lawn work continues to climb. The 25-to-44 age cohort outsources lawn care at a meaningfully higher rate than the same age cohort 15 years ago, driven by dual-income households and the shift in how that generation values weekend time. Third, the commercial side benefits from the steady growth of new commercial real estate (industrial parks, healthcare campuses, multi-family rental properties) which all carry recurring grounds-maintenance budgets.
Bottom line
A $62.9 billion US lawn care market growing at nearly 5% a year is a healthy market. The opportunity for operators is real, but it favors the operators who run a recurring annual program model, control their labor and input costs, and can package chemical, mow, and aeration into one contract. Operators stuck on single-visit residential mowing will see slower growth than the headline rate suggests, while top-five national operators continue to take a larger share of the commercial side.