Profit Margin
-11.8%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction ·NAICS 2121
NAICS 2121 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Coal Mining - Industry Benchmarks
$106,318/yr average annual pay, with 4 SBA loans on record for NAICS 2121.
- -11.8%
- Net margin
- 42K
- Workers employed
- $106,318/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $7M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 2121
Coal Mining runs a -11.8% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 491 establishments employing 42K workers.
- -11.8%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 42K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $106,318/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $7M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Coal Mining's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Coal Mining is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Coal Mining
Coal Mining sits inside Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction at a -11.8% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $30.0B in aggregate receipts across 996 returns, averaging $30.1B per establishment.
491 establishments employ 42,347 workers (86.3/location) at $106,318/yr average annual pay. West Virginia leads employment, followed by Wyoming and Indiana.
Coal Mining sits in the 16th percentile for employment and the 1st percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$30.0B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$-3534065000
Pre-tax net income
Employment
42,347
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$106,318/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
491
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 2,506; establishment count decreased by 10. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Where each dollar of Coal Mining revenue goes
Workforce scale
Coal Mining margin vs national reference points
Coal Mining net margin 0.0%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
996 returns 100%
Margin: -11.8% · Receipts: $30.0B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 996
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $30.1B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $4.5B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 86.3
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Coal Mining NAICS 21211 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| West Virginia | 13,109 |
| Wyoming | 4,030 |
| Indiana | 2,285 |
| Alabama | 2,251 |
| Colorado | 1,113 |
| Texas | 990 |
Showing top 10 of 19 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
4
Total Loan Volume
$7M
Avg Loan Size
$1663K
Jobs Supported
384
Program Breakdown
7(a) 4 (100%)
504 0 (0%)
Top SBA Lender
US Eagle FCU
1 loans in this industry
New Business Share
25.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (3 yrs)
2021 1
2022 2
2023 1
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Coal Mining?
$30.0B in total annual receipts across all Coal Mining businesses. Average per business: $30.1B.
How profitable is Coal Mining?
-11.8% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Coal Mining?
491 business establishments. Together they employ 42,347 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Coal Mining?
$106,318/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 86.3 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Coal Mining employment?
West Virginia leads with 13,109 workers. Wyoming (4,030) and Indiana (2,285) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Coal Mining receive?
Coal Mining businesses received 4 SBA loans totaling $7 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1663K. These loans supported 384 jobs at origination. Most lending (100%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Coal Mining, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Coal Mining ranks #218 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #125 of 126 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (-11.8% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (42,347 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction · Rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 2121 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.