How many piano tuners are there in Chicago?

I'll work out how many tunings Chicago needs in a year and divide by how many one tuner can do. Chicago has about 2.7 million people, which is about 1 million households. That's at roughly two and a half people per household, rounded down a little. I'll say there are about 50,000 pianos in homes. That's one household in 20. Pianos are expensive and take up space, so more than that feels too high. Home pianos get tuned about once every two years on average, so that's 25,000 tunings a year. Serious players tune twice a year, but a lot of pianos sit untouched for a decade. A tuner can do about 1,000 tunings a year. A tuning plus travel takes around two hours, so that's four a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year. So 25,000 divided by 1,000 is 25 piano tuners. That sounds about right to me.

I'll work out how many tunings Chicago needs in a year and divide by how many one tuner can do. Chicago has about 2.7 million people, which is about 1 million households. That's at roughly two and a half people per household, rounded down a little. I'll say there are about 50,000 pianos in homes. That's one household in 20. Pianos are expensive and take up space, so more than that feels too high. Then there are pianos outside homes, in schools, churches, music schools and concert venues. I'll add 5,000 for those. Home pianos get tuned about once every two years on average, so that's 25,000 tunings a year. Serious players tune twice a year, but a lot of pianos sit untouched for a decade. The 5,000 in institutions get tuned about twice a year, which adds 10,000. That makes 35,000 tunings in total. A tuner can do about 1,000 tunings a year. A tuning plus travel takes around two hours, so that's four a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year. So 35,000 divided by 1,000 is 35 full-time tuners. Many tuners work part time or do repairs as well, so the head count is probably higher, maybe 50. As a check, 35 tuners for 55,000 pianos is about 1,600 pianos each. With most of them tuned every other year, that's a full book of clients.