# How we count, and what our numbers are

A number on this site is one of three things, and the page says which: a figure from an official source, our own count of companies, or an assumption of ours that is labelled as one.

## Three kinds of number

**How numbers are labelled**

| Kind | How you can tell | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| From an official source | A numbered link to the source | Florida's sales tax on cleaning |
| Our assumption | The words "planning assumption" beside it | The default cleaning speeds in the cleaning scope calculator |
| Our count of companies | The words "CityPreferred count" and a month | How many roofing contractors there are in a city, on the [data pages](https://citypreferred.com/data) |

## How we count companies

- **What we count.** Independent businesses that do the work, for homes or for businesses. A painter is counted whether they paint offices or houses.
- **What we leave out.** Suppliers, stores, public bodies and national chains.
- **Cities.** A city is listed when it has 20 or more companies. Suburbs are counted as their own towns, not as part of the city next door.
- **What a count does not say.** It does not say a company is licensed, insured or recommended, and no company is named. It is how many there are, not a list.
- **How exact it is.** Every count carries the month it was made. Businesses open and close every week, so treat a count as a careful estimate, not a census. Seen an error? [Tell us](https://citypreferred.com/contact).

## Prices

We do not publish local prices. A price range is only honest when it comes from real quotes for comparable jobs, and we have not collected enough of them. The calculator gives labor hours and wages, which go into a price, and says so.

## Need a company for this?

Tell CityPreferred the job and your ZIP code at https://citypreferred.com/request. A person checks the request and one local company that does that kind of work contacts you. Free for you; the company pays CityPreferred. Details: https://citypreferred.com/how-we-are-paid

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Canonical page: https://citypreferred.com/data-methodology

Last reviewed: 2026-09-30

Publisher: CityPreferred (https://citypreferred.com)