SafePedicures Research — Texas licensing data

61 Texas counties have no nail-specialty establishment on the state roster

61 of 254

counties — home to 244,382 Texans — with zero nail-specialty establishment licenses on the roster

Cosmetology licensing coverage in Texas is nearly universal at the county level: 248 of 254 counties have at least one licensed cosmetology establishment of some kind. The specialty tier is a different picture — 61 counties have no establishment licensed specifically for nail services (the Manicurist and Manicurist/Esthetician establishment classes).

Most are rural. But not all: Trinity County (14,489 residents) is the most populous county in Texas with no nail-specialty establishment on the roster — despite having 17 cosmetology establishments of other classes.

The 15 most populous counties without one

CountyPopulation (2024)Other cosmetology establishments
Trinity County14,48917
Blanco County13,35823
Red River County11,69611
Clay County10,7309
Runnels County9,75118
Parmer County9,6699
Archer County9,1555
Hamilton County8,64413
San Augustine County7,76715
Goliad County7,2219
Refugio County6,73914
Lynn County5,95212
Carson County5,82210
Presidio County5,68611
Delta County5,6477

"Other cosmetology establishments" counts full-service, mini, esthetician, eyelash, and mobile classes in the county — many of which can and do offer nail services under a full-service license. A nail-specialty desert is not necessarily a pedicure desert.

All 61 counties

CountyPopulation (2024)Other establishments
Trinity County14,48917
Blanco County13,35823
Red River County11,69611
Clay County10,7309
Runnels County9,75118
Parmer County9,6699
Archer County9,1555
Hamilton County8,64413
San Augustine County7,76715
Goliad County7,2219
Refugio County6,73914
Lynn County5,95212
Carson County5,82210
Presidio County5,68611
Delta County5,6477
Martin County5,1793
Floyd County5,04210
Crosby County5,0303
Hartley County4,9962
Wheeler County4,82411
Garza County4,6455
Mason County3,9879
Fisher County3,6656
Hudspeth County3,6080
Baylor County3,5334
Hardeman County3,4174
Coke County3,3966
Concho County3,3263
Knox County3,2557
Donley County3,19312
Kinney County3,1912
Shackelford County3,16910
Upton County3,1282
Lipscomb County2,8805
Hall County2,8285
Real County2,7726
Sherman County2,7713
Collingsworth County2,6119
Cochran County2,5832
Schleicher County2,3025
Menard County1,9116
Oldham County1,8237
Jeff Davis County1,7781
Dickens County1,7253
Throckmorton County1,5323
Briscoe County1,4946
Sterling County1,3871
Edwards County1,3832
Cottle County1,2633
Stonewall County1,2353
Glasscock County1,1531
Foard County1,0531
Motley County1,0152
Roberts County8370
Terrell County7180
Kent County7031
McMullen County5651
Borden County5571
Kenedy County3300
King County2150
Loving County480
What this data does — and doesn't — tell you. These figures count license records on the state roster. They say nothing about cleanliness, inspection results, or safety — Texas publishes no establishment-level inspection or disciplinary data in this dataset. A licensed establishment is not certified safe, and an expired license on the roster does not mean a business is operating unlawfully: it may have closed, relocated, or renewed after the state generated the file. Also note the flip side: full-service establishments in these counties may offer identical nail services — this measures how the specialty license classes distribute, not where pedicures are available or how good they are.

Methodology

Source: Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation (TDLR), "TDLR - All Licenses" open dataset, dataset 7358-krk7. TDLR last regenerated the dataset on 2026-04-12; we retrieved our snapshot on 2026-07-01. County populations: U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024 County Population Estimates (co-est2024-alldata.csv) (retrieved 2026-07-01).

Query logic:we downloaded every row whose license type is one of TDLR's cosmetology establishment classes (Full Service Establishment, Mini Establishment, Manicurist/Esthetician Establishment, Esthetician Establishment, Manicurist Establishment, Eyelash Extension Establishment, Mobile Establishment), kept the 71,250 rows with a parseable Texas business address (of 71,402 downloaded; 34 out-of-state and 118unparseable-address rows excluded), and computed all expiry figures against the dataset's own generation date. "Nail-specialty" means the Manicurist Establishment and Manicurist/Esthetician Establishment license classes. County analyses use TDLR business_county reconciled to Census county names; rows with blank or OUT OF STATE county are excluded from county tables (but included in statewide totals).

Limitations:

  • TDLR last regenerated this dataset on 2026-04-12; all "expired as of" figures are computed against that date, not the retrieval date (2026-07-01). A license shown as expired may have been renewed after the file was generated.
  • The dataset has no license-status field, no issue dates, and no disciplinary or inspection data. Nothing here measures cleanliness, inspection results, or safety.
  • An expired license on the roster does not mean the business is operating: it may have closed, relocated, or renewed after the file date. Texas allows late renewal (with higher fees) for up to three years after expiration.
  • Nail-specialty counts cover the Manicurist Establishment and Manicurist/Esthetician Establishment license classes only. Full Service Establishments may also offer nail services, so these figures undercount where nail services are available.
  • Counts are of licenses on the roster, not confirmed open businesses.

Every figure on this page is computed by scripts/research/analyze-tdlr.mjs from the committed snapshot data/research/tdlr-establishments-2026-07-01.json.gz— the analysis is re-runnable end to end. Cite as: "SafePedicures analysis of TDLR licensing data, 2026-07-01" with a link to this page.

Data update history

When we refresh the snapshot and a published figure changes, the change is recorded here with the prior value — numbers on these pages are never silently replaced.

Related

See where the licenses do cluster in nail-salon density across Texas counties, or browse our city directories for Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth and Plano.

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