The Answers Issue: Trends

Yes. The number of U.S. laboratories grew steadily from the late 1930s, peaking at approximately 11,500 labs in 1995. That number held pretty steady through the mid-2000s and then began a slow decline. Today there are just about 8,000 labs, including in-house labs; this figure is not expected to hold steady since more boomers will be retiring over the next 10 years.

Just over one-third of laboratory owners plan to retire by 2020. The most popular exit strategies are selling off their equipment...