Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How U.S. locksmiths work, how they show up in search and video, and the evidence behind it: our own read of 281 locksmith homepages; Google's video and verification rules for locksmiths, what customers read and watch, how many locksmith businesses and locksmiths there are and what they earn (including Florida), which states license locksmiths, what Google's own study found about fake locksmith listings, what lock makers and franchises report, and where the popular numbers came from.
17.8% of 281 U.S. locksmith homepages showed a video player in November 2026, against 2 of 40 Pop-A-Lock franchise pages; 81.9% offered car keys or automotive work (our measurement). (Mark Studios)See details
The U.S. had 4,280 locksmith establishments with employees in 2025, employing 17,002 people; establishments rose 10.9% from 2015 (BLS; our calculation). (BLS; Mark Studios)See details
Locksmith employers took in $2,626,866 thousand (about $2.63 billion) in 2022; commercial lock and security work was 42.5% of receipts and residential work 20.6% (Census; our calculation). (U.S. Census Bureau; Mark Studios)See details
Locksmiths and safe repairers earned a mean $55,470 in May 2025, and BLS projects the occupation to shrink 11.7% from 2025 to 2035. (BLS)See details
We confirmed statewide locksmith licensing or registration in 12 states; Florida has none, and its local licences ended July 1, 2025. (Mark Studios; The Florida Senate)See details
In Google's own 2014-2015 study, 42.7% of U.S. locksmith listings on Google Maps were abusive on an average day, and they drew 11.1% of locksmith impressions. (Google and UC San Diego)See details
The widely repeated "40% of fake listings" describes the mix of fake listings (at least 40.3% were on-call trades), not the share of locksmith listings that were fake. (Google and UC San Diego)See details
Locksmiths must pass Google's Advanced Verification, including a recorded video interview, to advertise on Google in the U.S. and Canada, and may re-verify every 12 months. (Google)See details
No national count of home lockouts exists; AAA says lockouts were ten percent of its roadside calls in 2024. (AAA)See details
How many locksmiths use video on their websites?
Fewer than one in five. We read the homepage of every U.S. locksmith with a website in OpenStreetMap on November 2, 2026: 17.8% of the 281 readable locksmith homepages had a video player (our measurement). That is more than on Pop-A-Lock's franchise pages, where 2 of 40 had one, but low for a home-service trade. Half of it is self-hosted (8.2% of homepages, often a muted background loop: 6.4%) and the rest mostly embeds from YouTube or Vimeo (7.5%; 5.7% YouTube). Of the homepages with video, 44.0% used only self-hosted files. Locksmiths sit below plumbers and electricians and above appliance repair companies measured the same way (17.8% against 20.4%, 24.4% and 15.2%).
Access control, master keys or high-security locks
77.2%
Mobile service
46.6%
A license number shown
14.6%
A price or other dollar amount shown
9.3%
A verification or membership badge
24.9%
Click-to-call phone link
84.3%
The homepages read like service menus. 81.9% offered car keys, transponders or key programming, 73.0% lockouts, 65.8% rekeying and 63.0% safes, and 38.8% named all three of car keys, rekeying and safes. 77.2% mentioned commercial work such as access control or master key systems. Trust signals are thinner: 34.2% said they were licensed, bonded or insured, 14.6% showed a license number, 17.1% named ALOA or SAVTA membership or a locksmith certification and 13.5% the Better Business Bureau; Google Guaranteed badges were too rare to report. Prices are rare too: 9.3% showed any dollar amount.
The phone does most of the converting. 84.3% had a click-to-call link, 35.9% a form on the homepage, 24.9% a quote button and 14.9% online booking; 8.9% loaded a chat widget. 54.8% showed or linked to reviews, 32.4% offered a free estimate and 3.9% offered Spanish.
Fake listings, measured on websites. Google's own study found 42.7% of U.S. locksmith listings on Google Maps were abusive on an average day in 2014-2015. On the websites mapped in OpenStreetMap the problem is smaller but visible: 10 of the 361 sites, 2.8%, were lead-generation pages without a business identity, which we kept out of the shares. All ten used the same call-center template, named the business only "[place] Locksmith", and showed no street address, legal business name, license number or social profile. Among the readable sites, 77.9% showed a street address or a legal business name on the homepage.
How we measured. We took every OpenStreetMap record tagged craft=locksmith or shop=locksmith with a website: 361 distinct U.S. website hosts on November 2, 2026. We read every homepage once in a headless browser, without clicking or submitting anything, and skipped sites whose robots.txt disallows our crawler, including one that redirects to a franchise site that blocks AI crawlers. After a title review (a garage door company and a parked page removed) and the lead-generation rule, 281 were readable locksmith sites. A hand check of 29 homepages agreed with the automatic video classification on 100.0% of them and with the online booking rule on 100.0%. The site list with every indicator is in homepages.csv and the method in crawl-summary.json. OpenStreetMap is volunteer-mapped, so shops with a storefront are likelier to be in it than mobile-only locksmiths; shares from 281 sites carry a margin of about plus or minus 4.5 points at 18%.
How do locksmiths use video and search?
Most locksmith work starts with a search, and Google sets the rules for the video a locksmith can show there. A Google Business Profile accepts videos up to 30 seconds long, files up to 75 MB, at 720p or higher (Google). Google recommends profile photos of 720 by 720 pixels (Google). Locksmiths also face a video step no other trade on Google faces: to advertise through Google Ads or Local Services in the United States and Canada they must pass Advanced Verification, which includes a recorded video interview, and may be asked to re-verify every 12 months (Google). Google says the check typically takes 6-8 weeks for locksmith and garage-door advertisers (Google), and while it runs Google advises keeping words such as "emergency" and "lockout" off the site and keywords (Google).
Customers already learn locks and home repairs from video. 84% of U.S. adults said they use YouTube in Pew Research Center's June 2026 survey, the most of any platform it measured (Pew Research Center). In Pew's 2018 survey, 51% of U.S. YouTube users called the site very important for figuring out how to do things they had not done before (Pew Research Center). In 2016, 55% of U.S. adults had watched product review videos online, and 82% at least sometimes read ratings or reviews before a first purchase (Pew Research Center).
Reviews carry the trust that a locksmith's video has to support. In BrightLocal's 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey of U.S. consumers (BrightLocal sells review software to local businesses), 97% read reviews for local businesses and 41% said they always do, up from 29% a year earlier. Google's share as a review source fell to 71% from 83%, and the use of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools for local recommendations rose to 45% from 6%. The average consumer used six review sites, and the top reason to trust a review, for 56%, was that other reviews backed it up (BrightLocal).
Locksmiths' own survey answers show what the video would be about. In Locksmith Ledger's 2025 State of the Industry survey of its North American readers (a trade magazine; it does not state the sample size), 70.5% of responding locksmiths offered emergency lockout service, 45% worked as mobile locksmiths with no retail location, and smart locks were the technology most often named as important, by 40%, down from 49.1% in 2024 (Locksmith Ledger).
Smart locks are one of the most explained products in the trade, and their spread is slow. Parks Associates, which sells research to lock and smart-home makers, puts smart door lock ownership at 11% of U.S. internet households in 2026; 25% of households with a security system own one, against 3% without (Parks Associates). In 2022 it gave the same 11%, then over 12 million households, and found 29% intending to buy one within six months, up from 21% in 2018 (Parks Associates). Intent has not turned into ownership growth since.
What customers are quoted is public too. HomeAdvisor, an Angi marketplace that sells leads to locksmiths, in its 2026 cost guide puts the average U.S. locksmith job at $163, with most jobs between $107 and $242; a house lockout at $65–$200; an after-hours surcharge of $150 to $250; and smart-lock installation labor between $50 and $500 (HomeAdvisor). These are the site's list ranges, not paid prices.
Do locksmith franchises put video on their local pages?
Rarely. On November 2, 2026 we read a random sample of 40 of the 330 local franchise pages listed in Pop-A-Lock's sitemap, from 15 states and Washington, D.C., in a headless browser. Only 2 embedded a video player, and both were YouTube embeds of brand ads behind a cookie-consent placeholder, not a local technician on camera. 0 played a muted background video, and 1 linked to a local office's own YouTube channel; every page linked the national brand channel in its footer.
The pages lean on other trust and response signals instead: 95.0% used "24/7" or emergency wording, 75.0% offered a quote or estimate request and all had a click-to-call link, 62.5% offered online booking, 42.5% linked a local office's own Facebook page, and 12.5% showed reviews or a star rating in the page itself. Licence numbers follow the law: 7 of the 18 sampled pages in states that license locksmiths showed one, against none of the 22 pages elsewhere.
Pop-A-Lock pages are built from one brand template, so these shares describe that template and its franchisees' choices within it, not U.S. locksmiths in general. We also read The Flying Locksmiths' pages but left them out because its robots.txt disallows named AI crawlers. The independent locksmith homepages are in the section above. Every sampled page and flag is in our location pages file; the method is in the evidence ledger.
How many locksmith businesses are there in the U.S.?
About 4,300 with employees. The BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages counted an average of 4,280 private locksmith establishments (NAICS 561622) in 2025, employing 17,002 people at an average annual pay of $60,618 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). In 2024 the counts were 4,274 establishments, 17,218 jobs and $57,710 average pay; in 2019, 4,071, 17,169 and $45,835 (BLS); in 2015, 3,860, 15,987 and $41,555 (BLS). By our calculation establishments rose 10.9% from 2015 to 2025 and jobs 6.3%, while average pay rose 32.3% from 2019 to 2025, before inflation.
Census counts agree. County Business Patterns found 3,961 locksmith employer establishments in 2023, with 16,123 employees and an annual payroll of $828,238 thousand (U.S. Census Bureau), against 3,999 in 2019 (U.S. Census Bureau). Most are very small: 2,922 had fewer than five employees (U.S. Census Bureau), 73.8% of the total. Census does not publish nonemployer counts for locksmiths alone, so one-person shops without payroll are missing from every count here.
The 2022 Economic Census counted 3,983 locksmith employer establishments with receipts of $2,626,866 thousand, about $2.63 billion (U.S. Census Bureau), up from $2,016,083 thousand in 2017 (U.S. Census Bureau), a rise of 30.3% before inflation. That is about $659,520 per establishment.
Nonresidential (commercial) lock and security installation and repair
1,116,878
42.5%
Residential lock and security installation and repair
541,161
20.6%
Key duplication (reported by 3,398 establishments)
392,374
14.9%
Retail sales of safes and vaults
120,743
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, NAICS 561622; shares are our calculation. Commercial work earns locksmiths about twice what residential work does, which is worth knowing before a shop's video leans only on home lockouts.
California has the most locksmith establishments, 536, and the most jobs, 2,224, in 2025; Texas has 1,778 jobs; and Illinois has the highest average pay, $78,267 (BLS QCEW).
How many locksmiths are there, and what do they earn?
About 15,000 work for an employer. The BLS employer survey counted 15,040 wage-and-salary locksmith and safe repairer jobs (SOC 49-9094) in May 2025, at a mean of $26.67 an hour or $55,470 a year and a median of $24.68 an hour (BLS). BLS Employment Projections, which include the self-employed, count 18.7 thousand jobs in 2025, of which 18.5% are self-employed, with a median annual wage of $51,320 (BLS). The two surveys differ by 3,660 jobs, mostly the self-employed.
BLS expects the occupation to shrink: to 16.5 thousand jobs in 2035, a fall of 11.7%, with about 1.2 thousand openings a year from people leaving (BLS). In May 2023 the bottom tenth earned $31,620 a year or less and the top tenth $76,460 or more; 10,200 of the jobs were in investigation and security services, the industry group that contains locksmith shops (BLS). California had the most locksmith jobs, 2,180, and Washington, D.C. paid the most, a mean of $71,120 (BLS).
Lock makers employ far more people than locksmith shops do. Allegion, the maker of Schlage, had about 13,300 employees worldwide at the end of 2025 (Allegion 10-K), and ASSA ABLOY's Americas division about 17,100 (ASSA ABLOY).
How many locksmiths are in Florida?
Florida averaged 481 private locksmith establishments in 2025, employing 1,697 people at an average annual pay of $59,180 (BLS QCEW). That is 11.2% of U.S. locksmith establishments, second only to California. Its location quotient of 1.57 means locksmith shops are a larger share of Florida's businesses than of the nation's (BLS). Florida had 487 establishments in 2024 (BLS), 457 in 2019 with 1,637 jobs and $43,427 average pay (BLS), and 438 in 2015 (BLS). Average pay rose 36.3% from 2019 to 2025 by our calculation, before inflation.
County Business Patterns counted 466 Florida locksmith employer establishments with 1,523 employees in 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau) and 451 in 2019 (U.S. Census Bureau). Florida establishments took in $194,875 thousand in 2022 (U.S. Census Bureau). In May 2023 Florida had 1,180 wage-and-salary locksmith jobs at a mean of $44,740 a year (BLS), and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area 350 (BLS).
Florida does not license locksmiths. A 2025 bill to license locksmith businesses through the state agriculture department (HB 1311) died in committee on 6/16/2025 (The Florida Senate). Florida Statutes s. 163.211 preempts occupational licensing to the state, and local licences imposed before 2021 expired on July 1, 2025 (Florida Statutes). Citing s. 163.211, Miami-Dade County stopped issuing its locksmith licences that day (Miami-Dade County), although its consumer-protection page still says locksmiths must register with the county (Miami-Dade County); the two county pages conflict.
Which states license locksmiths?
A minority. Reading each state's own statute or regulator, we confirmed a statewide locksmith licence, registration or certification in 12 states as of November 2026. We did not survey all 50, so treat this as a confirmed floor, not a census; the oft-repeated "13 to 15 states" has no official source we could find. Two states repealed their laws in 2021 and Florida never had one.
State
What the law requires
Source
Alabama
Licence from the Electronic Security Board of Licensure under Code of Alabama 34-1A; 16 hours of continuing education per renewal
Licence under 225 ILCS 447: age 18, examination, fingerprints, insurance; agency employees need 20 hours of training; the article is set to repeal in 2029
No statewide licence; local licences expired July 1, 2025 (see the Florida section)
The Florida Senate
Few states publish how many locksmiths they license. California's Bureau of Security and Investigative Services counted 2,441 Locksmith Company licences, 1,650 Locksmith Employee registrations and 30 branch registrations for July 2025 to June 2026, and received 180 complaints about locksmith companies (California BSIS). An April 2024 staff report had listed 2,163 companies (California BSIS), so company licences rose 12.9% while employee registrations fell. Illinois had 255 active locksmith licences and 108 agency licences on October 1, 2026 (IDFPR). North Carolina's board reported 1216 licensees to the legislature's evaluation division in about 2015, its latest public count (NC Locksmith Licensing Board), and revoked 3 licences in 2025 (NC Locksmith Licensing Board). Connecticut had 293 registered locksmiths in July 2026 and 12 complaints in five years (Connecticut DCP).
How common are fake locksmith listings and scams?
The only large measurement is Google's own, and it is ten years old. Google and UC San Diego researchers studied every Google Maps business listing that Google later suspended as abusive between June 2014 and September 2015. In the U.S., locksmiths were 43.9% of those suspended listings, and worldwide the largest single category at 25.7% (Google and UC San Diego). On an average day 42.7% of U.S. listings in the locksmith category were abusive, but they drew 11.1% of locksmith impressions (Google and UC San Diego): their share of listings was 3.8 times their share of what users saw. In West Harrison, New York, 83.3% of locksmith results were abusive, and in New York City 15.6% (Google and UC San Diego).
The paper also shows how the fakes worked in 2014-2015. 80.4% of abusive mail-verified locksmith listings changed ZIP code after verification, against 9.7% of legitimate ones; 31.2% were verified at addresses reused for many listings and 17.0% at UPS Stores; 16.8% had switched into the locksmith category after verification, and of all suspended listings that changed category, 74.9% changed into locksmiths; 90.6% used VoIP phone numbers (Google and UC San Diego). Across all categories, abusive listings were under 0.4% of U.S. listings and got 0.5% of impressions, and stayed live a median 8.6 days (Google and UC San Diego).
Google said in April 2017 that its changes had cut fake listings 70% from their June 2015 peak and that it caught 85% of fake listings before they appeared (Google). Its later counts cover every business category worldwide, not locksmiths: more than 3 million fake profiles taken down in 2018 (Google), more than 12 million removed or blocked in 2024 with 240 million policy-violating reviews (Google), and over 13 million in 2025 with 292 million reviews and 80 million user-suggested listing edits (Google). In 2024 it removed over 10,000 listings run by one group that impersonated real locksmiths (Google), and its March 2025 complaint against a Maryland locksmith alleges at least 1,034 edits to listings of 149 businesses (U.S. District Court, N.D. Cal.).
As of November 2026, Google Ads restricts locksmith ads in the U.S. and Canada to advertisers that pass advanced verification (Google) and does not allow them at all in Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Belgium (Google). In Local Services ads, every U.S. and Canadian locksmith must pass Advanced Verification on top of the usual screening (Google).
Courts and states have acted case by case. Fourteen locksmith companies sued Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! claiming they profited from scam listings; the D.C. Circuit dismissed the case in 2019 (U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit). The plaintiffs said the three controlled about 90% of search (D.C. Circuit). An earlier suit by Baldino's Lock & Key was dismissed at 88 F. Supp. 3d 543 (U.S. District Court, D.D.C.), and a 2022 House report cites the D.C. Circuit ruling, 925 F.3d 1263, as a Section 230 example (U.S. House of Representatives). Georgia settled with an Atlanta locksmith company for $250,000 in civil penalties in 2021; it had run over 160 websites with local place names (Georgia Attorney General). Ohio sued a locksmith advertising operation in 2014 whose call center quoted consumers as little as $19 (Ohio Attorney General). A North Carolina court ordered a locksmith operator and two companies to pay $395,000 each in 2010 (WRAL News, reporting the judgment). Washington made a locksmith's false local address or number an unfair practice from July 24, 2015 (Washington State Legislature). Oregon's 2013 alert describes a bogus locksmith charging $139 (Oregon Department of Justice). BBB Midwest Plains received 48 locksmith scam complaints in 2024, up from 25 in 2022 (InvestigateTV, reporting BBB). The FTC's archived advice warned of look-local ads that route to call centers in another city (FTC).
What do lock makers and locksmith franchises report?
Lock makers' filings show locks turning electronic slowly. Allegion, the maker of Schlage, reported net revenues of $4,067.3 million in 2025, of which its Americas segment brought in 3,218.8 million (Allegion 10-K). It sold 1,075.1 million of electronic products against 2,713.9 million of mechanical ones (Allegion 10-K), so electronics were 28.4% by our calculation. Americas residential revenue fell by a low-single digits percent while electronic revenue grew by a low-double digits percent; its ten largest customers took 26% of sales (Allegion 10-K).
ASSA ABLOY, which owns Kwikset, Sargent and Medeco, reported 2025 sales of SEK 152,409 million, with SEK 43,489 million in its Opening Solutions Americas division (ASSA ABLOY Annual Report). That division's sales are 45% residential, and electromechanical and electronic products are 24% of them; ASSA ABLOY lists locksmiths among its sales channels (ASSA ABLOY). It bought Kwikset's parent business from Spectrum Brands for $4.3 billion, closing in June 2023 with a gain on sale of $2.8 billion (Spectrum Brands 10-K); that business had $ 1,652.3 million of net sales in fiscal 2022 (Spectrum Brands 10-K).
Fortune Brands' Security segment (Master Lock, Yale, August, SentrySafe) had net sales of $692.6 million in 2025; it says the segment primarily sells to locksmiths and others, with Home Depot and Lowe's taking 18% (Fortune Brands 10-K). It paid $ 813.9 million for ASSA ABLOY's U.S. and Canadian Yale and August smart-lock business together with Emtek and Schaub (Fortune Brands 10-K). Napco's door-locking revenue was $ 69,132 thousand in fiscal 2026, up 11.1% (Napco 10-K). CompX's security products segment had sales of $120.7 million in 2025 (CompX 10-K), and CompX credits its North American cabinet-lock share to the locksmith distribution channel (CompX 10-K). An EDGAR full-text search finds "locksmith" in 12 Form 10-K documents filed in 2019 and 7 in 2025 (SEC EDGAR).
Cars are taking lockout work away from locksmiths. NHTSA estimated in 2011 that keyless ignition was on less than 10 percent of new U.S. vehicles, and counted 1,212,355 model-year 2008 vehicles with it (NHTSA). AAA says lockouts were Ten percent of its roadside calls in 2024 (AAA), down from 11.9% in 2021, as keyless entry spreads (AAA).
The CPSC recalls show where electronic locks fail. Biometric gun safes dominate recent lock recalls: about 133,370 Sports Afield and Sanctuary units in 2024 (CPSC), 61,000 Fortress units in 2023 (CPSC), 60,000 Awesafe (CPSC), 33,500 Bulldog (CPSC) and 24,820 Machir units (CPSC) in 2024, each because unauthorized users could open them. In 2021 dormakaba recalled about 2,400 commercial delayed-egress locks that could fail to open in an emergency (CPSC).
The biggest franchise's own numbers do not agree with each other. Pop-A-Lock calls itself the largest locksmith franchise and its About page said in November 2026 that it serves over 8,500 communities (Pop-A-Lock), while its franchise-sales page says more than 4500 (Pop-A-Lock), the same figure its About page gave in 2016, 4,500 (Pop-A-Lock, archived). In 2013 it reported 170 locations serving nearly 9,500 communities (Pop-A-Lock), and in late 2014 "close to" 8,500 (Pop-A-Lock). Its free child-in-car unlocking program claimed over 350,000 rescues in August 2013 (Pop-A-Lock) and over 300,000 in December 2014 (Pop-A-Lock); the current page (November 2026) says only thousands (Pop-A-Lock). ALOA, the locksmiths' trade association, founded in 1955 (ALOA), tells advertisers it has over 6,000 members and 7,282 newsletter subscribers (ALOA media kit).
What do the popular locksmith numbers really say?
"X% of locksmith listings on Google are fake"
Every version traces to one Google and UC San Diego study of 2014-2015 Maps data (WWW 2017). The paper found that at least 40.3% of suspended listings were on-call trades (locksmiths, plumbers, electricians), which is the mix of fake listings, not the share of locksmith listings that were fake (Google and UC San Diego). UCSD's release rounded it to 40 percent (UC San Diego) and Google's post to 2 out of 5 (Google). The figure that does describe locksmiths is 42.7% of locksmith listings abusive on an average day, which drew 11.1% of impressions (Google and UC San Diego). The release turned the impressions share into 11 percent of "search results" (UC San Diego), New Atlas into Eleven percent (New Atlas), and Bitdefender misread the West Harrison figure of 83.3 percent (UC San Diego) as 83.3 percent of all fake pins there (Bitdefender). The "nine out of 10" line goes back at least to a 2012 quote from a lawyer for the locksmiths' association, with no count behind it (Locksmith Ledger), and locksmith blogs still repeat "9 out of 10" without a source (Always Affordable Locksmiths). The New York Times' 2016 investigation gave no share; its numbers were anecdotes, such as a 30 to 40 percent cut in one owner's business (The New York Times). Locksmiths suing Google said they lost 30 percent and 60 percent of revenue (eWeek), an allegation, not a finding.
Use instead: 42.7% of listings and 11.1% of impressions in 2014-2015, labelled with those years, and Google's own counts of fake profiles removed across all categories: 3 million in 2018 (Google), 12 million in 2024 (Google) and 13 million in 2025 (Google). Google said in 2017 that fewer than 0.5% of local searches led to fake listings and that it caught 85% before they appeared (Google). A blog's "10,000 fraudulent locksmith listings removed in 2025" (Always Affordable Locksmiths) misdates Google's count: the 10,000 listings CBS reported covered one impersonation group (CBS News).
"Americans get locked out X million times a year"
No government agency or survey owner publishes a national count of home lockouts. "12.9 million lockouts a year" credited to "2022 ALOA" appears only on a statistics aggregator (ZipDo), and "250,000 emergency calls to locksmiths a day", credited to ALOA by ABC News in 2008, has no ALOA publication behind it (ABC News). The "4 million car lockouts" in a 2025 locksmith press release (BlueSky Locksmith) and a 2021 Seattle Chamber member post's "4 Million" (Seattle Metropolitan Chamber) are AAA's car calls: Fox News relayed more than 4,000,000 locked-out motorists a year in 2015 (Fox News), and AAA itself reported nearly 5 million in 2005 (AAA). The only owner-published home figures are local and from sellers: a 2011 Schlage survey found a quarter of St. Louis-area residents locked out in the past year (Schlage), and key-kiosk company KeyMe put New York City in 2016 at 1.9 million lockouts a year (Brick Underground). Use instead: AAA's share of roadside calls that are lockouts (10% in 2024), and say there is no national home figure.
"Video lifts conversions 80%"
It began as one client test by EyeView, a company selling landing-page video, which reported an 80 percent lift in November 2009 (EyeView). The case study itself measured 86 percent for TutorVista (EyeView). EyeView's 2010 white paper called over 80% a best case "in some cases" (EyeView), and its one fully described test found almost 32 percent (EyeView). Unbounce generalised it to 80% for all landing pages in 2010 (Unbounce), tech press repeated 80 percent by 2015 (Tech.co), and home-service marketers still promise contractors up to 80% (PipelineOn). Unbounce's own 2021 analysis of about 35,000 landing pages per period found pages with video converted no better (Unbounce). Use instead: nothing general; test your own page.
"34% of burglars enter through the front door"
Pop-A-Lock tells customers that 34 percent of burglars come through the front door, with no source (Pop-A-Lock). Others credit the same list (34 percent front door) to the FBI (Charles & Hudson) or to "a burglary study by ADT" (34%; CE Pro); the FBI publishes no point-of-entry table and we found no ADT document. The Bureau of Justice Statistics' victimization survey (2003-2007) does measure entry: when no one was home, 73.4 percent of forced-entry burglaries came through a door (any door), unlocked doors or windows let offenders in for 39.5 percent of no-force burglaries, and lock picking accounted for 4.1 percent (Bureau of Justice Statistics). Use instead: the BJS figures, with their years.
We started from the questions people search for about locksmith video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 326 figures from 73 publishers.
On November 2, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages open data, occupation wage estimates and Employment Projections; Census County Business Patterns and the 2017 and 2022 Economic Census (through the Census data API); the statutes and regulators of Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington, and Miami-Dade County; the Google and UC San Diego paper and Google's own help, policy and blog pages; court opinions and filings and state attorney general releases; the filings of Allegion, Fortune Brands, Spectrum Brands, Napco and CompX, ASSA ABLOY's annual report and EDGAR full-text search; CPSC recalls and NHTSA; Pew, BrightLocal, Parks Associates, HomeAdvisor and Locksmith Ledger; Pop-A-Lock and ALOA; and the pages behind each popular claim. BLS, CPSC, Tennessee and the FTC refuse automated requests or have moved pages, so we read Internet Archive copies. We left out BLS occupation pages for Florida newer than May 2023 (no archived copy, and the BLS data API's daily limit was reached), Census nonemployer counts (not published for locksmiths alone), Angi and Thumbtack pages (blocked or down), Think with Google pages (they render only in a browser and we could not trace their figures), YouTube channel counts (not in the page text), state franchise disclosure databases (behind search forms) and paid market-research reports. The Flying Locksmiths' pages were read but excluded because its robots.txt disallows named AI crawlers. The homepage and franchise page figures are our own measurement on the same day.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
380 Overpass elements -> minus 0 out of scope by name -> 380 with a usable URL -> minus 7 on directory/social/marketplace hosts {'yelp.com': 5, 'facebook.com': 1, 'sites.google.com': 1} -> 373 records -> 361 distinct registrable hosts
50 / 281 readable homepages with video_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player: a <video> element or player iframe/placeholder (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Vidyard, Brightcove, Loom, Facebook video ...) at least 150x80 px, or a labelled click-to-play control or hidden player embed
23 / 281 readable homepages with video_self_hosted = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player that is a native <video> element (file served by the site or its site builder/CDN, incl. background videos)
21 / 281 readable homepages with video_embedded = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: video player from a third-party host (YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia, Facebook, TikTok ...)
16 / 281 readable homepages with youtube_player = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a YouTube player (iframe, lite-youtube placeholder, lightbox embed link or hidden embed)
50 / 281 readable homepages with youtube_channel_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to a YouTube channel or handle (not a single video; template placeholders excluded)
77 / 281 readable homepages with instagram_link = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link to an Instagram profile (template placeholders excluded)
197 / 281 readable homepages with emergency_24_7 = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: 24/7, 24 hours a day, 24-hour, around the clock, 365 days, day or night, or emergency service/locksmith/lockouts/response/calls in the page text, or a link labelled 24/7 or emergency
205 / 281 readable homepages with lockout_service = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: lockout(s), locked out, car/home opening or unlocking in the page text, or a link labelled lockout
230 / 281 readable homepages with auto_car_keys = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: car keys, automotive locksmith/keys/lockouts, transponder keys, key fobs, remote or smart keys, ignition work, key programming or laser-cut keys in the page text, or a link labelled so
177 / 281 readable homepages with safes = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: safes, safe opening/cracking/installation/combination/repair/sales/lockouts/services, gun safes or vaults in the page text, or a link labelled safes/vaults ("safe and secure", "stay safe" excluded)
217 / 281 readable homepages with commercial_access_control = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: access control, keyless entry, card access/readers, key cards, master key systems, high-security or restricted keys, panic hardware/exit devices, electronic or magnetic locks, electric strikes, door closers, keypads, intercoms, smart locks or a high-security brand (Medeco, Mul-T-Lock, Abloy, Von Duprin, Sargent, Corbin, Best Access) in the page text, or a link labelled so
41 / 281 readable homepages with licence_number_shown = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a license number shown: License #/No./Number followed by digits, California LCO numbers, Texas B-numbers, Virginia DCJS numbers, New Jersey 13VH numbers, TDLR numbers or Lic. # (driver's and business license numbers excluded)
26 / 281 readable homepages with dollar_amount_shown = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a dollar amount shown in the page text ($ followed by digits) excluding amounts in an insurance/liability/bond/coverage, tax credit/rebate, revenue, wage/pay/hiring or $0 context and amounts followed by million/billion/k
131 / 281 readable homepages with mobile_service = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: mobile locksmith/service/units/vans, we come to you, on-site service, fully equipped vans or at your location in the page text, or a link labelled mobile locksmith/service
70 / 281 readable homepages with verification_badge_any = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a verification or membership badge: Google Guaranteed/Screened, BBB or Better Business Bureau accreditation, ALOA (Associated Locksmiths of America), SAVTA, CRL/CML/CPL locksmith certification, verified business/locksmith, Angi certified or HomeAdvisor screened, in the page text or an image alt
48 / 281 readable homepages with aloa_or_savta = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: ALOA, Associated Locksmiths of America, SAVTA or a CRL/CML/CPL certification in the page text or an image alt
38 / 281 readable homepages with bbb_mention = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: BBB, Better Business Bureau or accredited business in the page text, an image alt or a bbb.org link
96 / 281 readable homepages with licensed_and_insured = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: "licensed and insured" (incl. licensed, bonded and insured; bonded and insured; insured and bonded), "fully licensed/insured/bonded" or "bonded" in the page text
91 / 281 readable homepages with free_estimate = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: free/complimentary/no-cost (no-obligation, on-site, written ...) estimate, quote, assessment, consultation, evaluation or bid in the page text, a button or a link
269 / 281 readable homepages with residential_mention = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: residential, home(s) or homeowners in the page text, or a link labelled so
247 / 281 readable homepages with commercial_mention = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: commercial, businesses, property managers, schools or hospitals in the page text, or a link labelled so
70 / 281 readable homepages with quote_or_estimate_request = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: quote or estimate request: a button or link labelled get/request/schedule/book a (free) quote/estimate/bid/consultation or free/instant quote or estimate, or a /quote, /estimate or request-a-quote URL path (not tel:/mailto:, not labels starting "Call")
101 / 281 readable homepages with online_form = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: an online form on the homepage: a non-search <form> with at least 2 visible fields, or 1 visible email/phone/message field, or an embedded third-party form or quote/booking widget (HubSpot, JotForm, GoHighLevel/LeadConnector form, Typeform, SmartMoving, Supermove, MoveitPro, Elromco, Granot, Housecall Pro, Jobber, ServiceTitan ...); tel: and mailto: links never count
12 / 281 readable homepages with online_booking_widget = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: an online booking/scheduling vendor detected: a network request, iframe or link to ServiceTitan Scheduler, Schedule Engine, Housecall Pro online booking, Jobber client hub / work request, Workiz, Netic, Thryv/vCita, Calendly, Acuity, Setmore, Square Appointments, LeadConnector booking or Zoho Bookings while the homepage loaded (schedulers that load only after a click are missed: a floor)
42 / 281 readable homepages with online_booking_any = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: an online booking widget as above, or a button or link labelled book/schedule online/now/service/an appointment/a visit, or make/request/set an appointment (not tel:/mailto:, not labels starting "Call"); the control may open a booking widget or a request form
154 / 281 readable homepages with reviews_testimonials = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: testimonials or reviews shown: page text with testimonials, customer reviews or stories, "what our customers say", Google reviews, star ratings or review counts; a link labelled testimonials/reviews or to a /testimonials or /reviews path; or a review-widget request (Birdeye, Podium, Elfsight, Trustindex, NearbyNow ...)
32 / 281 readable homepages with careers_or_hiring = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: link labelled careers, jobs, join our team, now hiring, employment, open positions, locksmiths/technicians wanted or apply now, a link to a /careers or /jobs path, or locksmiths/technicians wanted or "now hiring" in the page text
11 / 281 readable homepages with spanish = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: Spanish offered: se habla/hablamos espanol, en espanol, Spanish-speaking, we speak Spanish, bilingual in the page text, html lang=es, an hreflang=es alternate, or a link labelled Espanol/Spanish or to an /es/ path (a bare "Spanish" does not count)
25 / 281 readable homepages with chat_widget = true (or non-empty) in homepages.csv; rule: a live-chat or web-chat widget: a network request to a chat vendor (Podium, Birdeye webchat, GoHighLevel/LeadConnector widgets, HubSpot chat, Intercom, Drift, Tawk.to, LiveChat, Tidio, Crisp, ApexChat, Ngage ...) or a chat-widget element on the page (form iframes excluded)
agreement counts in own/osm/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; no misses; 'Video Surveillance' service links and background-slideshow pause buttons correctly not counted.
agreement counts in own/osm/data/handcheck.json (validate.py); sample random.Random(11) of 30 readable sites; no misses; 'Schedule service' buttons that open a request form count by the rule (the control may open a booking widget or a request form).
10 / 361 rows with status = lead_gen_no_identity in homepages.csv; rule in own/osm/README.md; candidates = readable locksmith-keyword homepages with street_address_shown, legal_entity_shown and licence_number_shown all false (66)
count of online_booking_vendor values among readable rows in homepages.csv: {'Thryv / vCita': 6, 'Jobber': 2, 'Workiz': 2, 'ServiceTitan Scheduler': 1, 'Housecall Pro': 1}; rule: an online booking/scheduling vendor detected: a network request, iframe or link to ServiceTitan Scheduler, Schedule Engine, Housecall Pro online booking, Jobber client hub / work request, Workiz, Netic, Thryv/vCita, Calendly, Acuity, Setmore, Square Appointments, LeadConnector booking or Zoho Bookings while the homepage loaded (schedulers that load only after a click are missed: a floor)
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
One-person shops are missing. Census does not publish nonemployer counts for locksmiths alone, and the payroll series count only businesses with employees. BLS puts 18.5% of locksmiths in self-employment.
The fake-listing evidence is old. The only measurement of fake locksmith listings covers Google Maps in 2014-2015. Google's later removal counts cover every business category worldwide.
Our licensing list is a floor. We confirmed 12 states at primary sources; we did not check every state, and few states publish how many locksmiths they license.
The homepage list comes from OpenStreetMap. OSM is volunteer-mapped, so storefront shops are likelier to be in it than mobile-only locksmiths; we visited every mapped locksmith with a website. Our lead-generation rule is narrow (one shared template with no business identity), so other fake or lead-seller sites may remain among the readable ones. Shares from 281 sites carry a margin of about plus or minus 4.5 points.
Our franchise page measurement covers one brand. Pop-A-Lock's local pages share a template, so they describe that template rather than U.S. locksmiths in general.
Survey and price figures come from sellers. BrightLocal, Parks Associates and HomeAdvisor sell into the market; Locksmith Ledger does not state its sample size; prices are list ranges, not paid prices.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/locksmith-video-statistics#WRK-001. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Locksmith Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/locksmith-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 2). Locksmith video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/locksmith-video-statistics
MLA
“Locksmith Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 2 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/locksmith-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Locksmith Video Statistics.” Last modified November 2, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/locksmith-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_locksmith_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Locksmith Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/locksmith-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-02}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (Department of Consumer Affairs), BSIS Staff Report, August 2026 (2026-08-20). Accessed 2026-11-02.
California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (Department of Consumer Affairs), BSIS Staff Report, April 2024 (2024-04-18). Accessed 2026-11-02.
Google and University of California, San Diego (Huang, Grundman, Thomas, Kumar, Bursztein, Levchenko, Snoeren), WWW 2017, Pinning Down Abuse on Google Maps (2017-04-03). Accessed 2026-11-02.
Google (Security Blog / Google Research blog; Doug Grundman and Kurt Thomas), Keeping fake listings off Google Maps (2017-04-06). Accessed 2026-11-02.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Nov 2, 2026: First published with 286 figures from 73 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Nov 2, 2026: Added our own measurement of independent businesses, held back at launch while the OpenStreetMap Overpass servers were down: a read of 281 U.S. locksmith homepages (video players, social links, services, license numbers, badges, booking tools and a lead-generation site count), with the site list (homepages.csv) and the method (crawl-summary.json). The Pop-A-Lock location page read stays as its own section.
Frequently asked questions
Do locksmiths use video on their websites?
Fewer than one in five. In our November 2026 read of 281 U.S. locksmith homepages from OpenStreetMap, 17.8% had a video player; 2 of 40 sampled Pop-A-Lock franchise pages did. 2.8% of the sites we found were lead-generation pages with no business identity.
How many locksmiths are there in the U.S.?
BLS counted 15,040 wage-and-salary locksmith and safe repairer jobs in May 2025, and 18.7 thousand jobs including the self-employed. There were 4,280 locksmith establishments with employees in 2025.
How much do locksmiths make?
The mean wage of locksmiths and safe repairers was $26.67 an hour, or $55,470 a year, in May 2025; the median was $24.68 an hour. Average pay per job at locksmith businesses was $60,618 in 2025.
How big is the locksmith industry?
Locksmith businesses with employees had receipts of $2,626,866 thousand, about $2.63 billion, in the 2022 Economic Census, up 30.3% from 2017 before inflation.
Do locksmiths need a licence in Florida?
No. Florida has no statewide locksmith licence, a 2025 bill to create one died, and local occupational licences expired on July 1, 2025 under Florida Statutes s. 163.211.
Which states require a locksmith licence?
We confirmed statewide licensing, registration or certification in 12 states, including California, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia. Tennessee and Nebraska repealed theirs in 2021.
How many locksmith listings on Google are fake?
The only measurement is Google and UC San Diego's study of 2014-2015 data: on an average day 42.7% of U.S. locksmith listings on Google Maps were abusive, and they drew 11.1% of locksmith impressions. No newer locksmith-specific figure is public.
Can a locksmith add video to a Google Business Profile?
Yes. Google accepts videos up to 30 seconds long and 75 MB, at 720p or higher.
