Research
Trade businesses in Victoria, by the numbers
We checked what 16,588 VIC trade businesses publish about themselves, and how much of it holds up against an independent source.
Measured 2026-09-22 · free to reuse with attribution
Of 16,588 trade businesses measured in Victoria in 2026, 17% publish an ABN that can be confirmed against the national register. Of the 7,666 whose listed phone number was compared with the number on their own website, 57.7% match and 6.8% contradict it. 82.4% of the 8,961 websites fetched responded, and 77.4% of the 11,046 cross-source matches found two or more independent sources. The median VIC trade business has 41 Google reviews, against 40 nationally. Trade licensing in Victoria is administered by Building and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electrical. Source: WhoToHire, 2026-09-22.
17%
publish a checkable ABN
of all 16,588. 13% below the national rate of 19.5%.
57.7%
phone number confirmed against their own site
of 7,666 compared. In line with the 59.8% national rate.
6.8%
phone number contradicting their own site
of 7,666 compared. In line with the 6.8% national rate.
82.4%
have a website that loads
of 8,961 fetched. In line with the 82.6% national rate.
41
Google reviews for the median business
The national median is 40. Review counts track how often people hire a trade, not how well they do it — a trade you call once a decade will always sit lower.
What stands out
Victoria publishes checkable ABNs at 17%, 13% below the 19.5% national rate. Registration rules are set federally — an ABN is the same instrument everywhere — so a state gap is about what businesses choose to publish rather than about who is registered.
521 businesses in Victoria — 6.8% of the 7,666 numbers we compared — list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website, in line with the national 6.8%. Worth checking before you call, because the same signature appears on both a listing nobody has updated in years and a lead-reselling service sitting between you and the person who does the work.
Licensing is where the state actually matters. Australia has no national trade register, so a licence is issued and enforced by Building and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electrical and a licence from another state does not automatically carry over.
Checking a licence in Victoria
Building and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electrical maintains the public register covering building practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria. Searching it is free, takes about a minute, and is the only way to confirm a licence is current — a number printed on a van proves nothing on its own.
Building and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalStep by step: how to check an Australian tradie's licence
VIC trades compared
Trades with at least 40 businesses in Victoria. Smaller groups are held back rather than published as percentages that swing on a single record.
| Trade | Businesses | ABN | Phones checked | Phone confirmed | Phone mismatch | Sites checked | Site loads | Median reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mechanics | 5,214 | 23.5% | 1,304 | 59.1% | 6.2% | 1,525 | 80.9% | 56 |
| Builders | 2,198 | 13.9% | 1,306 | 59.8% | 6.6% | 1,486 | 85.2% | 17 |
| Cleaners | 1,007 | 11.8% | 564 | 58.2% | 8.7% | 688 | 78.6% | 35 |
| Electricians | 925 | 18.8% | 516 | 62.8% | 7.4% | 607 | 81.9% | 34 |
| Plumbers | 772 | 19.2% | 444 | 60.8% | 7.9% | 511 | 83.4% | 40 |
| Photographers | 654 | 6.9% | 422 | 37% | 3.6% | 514 | 80.7% | 30 |
| Gardeners & Landscapers | 578 | 8.7% | 332 | 61.7% | 3.9% | 389 | 81% | 20 |
| Pet Groomers | 571 | 11% | 192 | 57.8% | 6.3% | 259 | 73% | 36 |
| Heating & Cooling | 540 | 16.7% | 306 | 53.9% | 8.8% | 345 | 85.8% | 38 |
| Car Washes | 443 | 3.6% | 142 | 39.4% | 7% | 178 | 79.2% | 125 |
| Solar Installers | 406 | 18% | 271 | 38% | 7% | 308 | 87.3% | 49 |
| Driving Schools | 374 | 15.8% | 164 | 60.4% | 5.5% | 197 | 81.7% | 92 |
| Painters | 353 | 13.9% | 215 | 63.7% | 7.4% | 246 | 82.9% | 31 |
| Roofers | 350 | 23.4% | 223 | 67.3% | 5.4% | 252 | 82.5% | 37 |
| Car Detailers | 318 | 10.7% | 148 | 54.1% | 6.1% | 180 | 80.6% | 54 |
| Locksmiths | 274 | 15.7% | 151 | 54.3% | 7.3% | 176 | 83% | 67 |
| Removalists | 272 | 9.2% | 150 | 64.7% | 6% | 179 | 82.1% | 81 |
| Pool Services | 272 | 19.1% | 166 | 60.2% | 10.8% | 190 | 83.2% | 40 |
| Fencing Contractors | 267 | 12.7% | 151 | 62.9% | 5.3% | 179 | 83.2% | 21 |
| Pest Controllers | 257 | 17.1% | 157 | 52.9% | 11.5% | 179 | 83.2% | 59 |
| Arborists | 241 | 14.9% | 168 | 69.6% | 6% | 185 | 87.6% | 38 |
| Tilers | 165 | 16.4% | 93 | 58.1% | 7.5% | 97 | 89.7% | 30 |
| Garage Door Specialists | 137 | 15.3% | 81 | 70.4% | 8.6% | 91 | 89% | 56 |
Method, and what it can't tell you
16,588 trade businesses in Victoria. Every one of them gets the same four checks: an ABN lookup against the national register, a comparison of the listed phone number against the number on the business's own website, an HTTP request to that website, and a match against open mapping data maintained separately from Google.
Not all four have run everywhere yet, so the figures above are shares of what has been checked: 7,666 phone comparisons, 8,961 website fetches and 11,046 cross-source matches out of 16,588 businesses. A check that has not run counts in neither half of a percentage.
This is a census of a directory, not of the trade. It covers businesses with enough of a public footprint to be found at all, which if anything biases these figures upward — a business too small to appear here is less likely to publish an ABN, not more.
ABN registration is the one figure taken over every business in the group rather than over a checked subset, because an absent ABN is not a failed lookup — read it as a floor. Review counts and averages are held; individual reviews are not, so nothing here can tell you whether a business's reviews arrived steadily or all at once.
Full method and national figures: the state of Australian trade business data.
Common questions
- How many trade businesses are there in Victoria?
- This dataset holds 16,588 across 23 trades, measured on 2026-09-22. It is a census of the businesses in this directory rather than of every trade business in Victoria, so treat it as a large sample with a known bias toward businesses that have a public footprint.
- How many VIC trade businesses publish an ABN you can check?
- 17% — 2,820 of 16,588. Nationally the figure is 19.5%, so Victoria sits 13% below it. An ABN is free to look up on the national register, which makes it the cheapest identity check available to a customer.
- Who regulates trade licensing in Victoria?
- Building and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electrical, covering building practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria. Licensing in Australia is a state matter with no national register, so a licence issued elsewhere does not automatically carry over. Check the licence with the regulator in the state where the work is being done.
- How many VIC businesses list a phone number that doesn't match their website?
- 6.8% of the 7,666 we compared, or about 521 businesses. This counts only direct contradictions between a listed number and the number on the business's own site, not missing numbers and not businesses the comparison has not run for.
- Which trades in Victoria are best documented?
- Mechanics publish a checkable ABN most often at 23.5%, and car washes least often at 3.6%. Only trades with at least 40 businesses in the state are compared.
Using these numbers
Free to quote, chart or republish under CC BY 4.0, which asks only for attribution and a link. The full aggregate dataset is available as a free download. If you need a cut that isn't published, ask.
WhoToHire, “VIC trade business data 2026”, 2026-09-22. https://whotohire.com.au/research/states/vic
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