Employment
5,004
Total employees (Census CBP)
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction ·NAICS 21221
NAICS 21221 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Iron Ore Mining - Industry Benchmarks
$105,653/yr average annual pay, with 1 SBA loans on record for NAICS 21221.
- 17.6%
- Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector margin
- 5K
- Workers employed
- $105,653/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $0M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 21221
Minnesota leads Iron Ore Mining activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector runs a 17.6% net margin.
- 17.6%
- Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 5K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $105,653/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $0M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Iron Ore Mining
Iron Ore Mining sits inside Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction, a sector that runs a 17.6% net margin overall.
23 establishments employ 5,004 workers (217.6/location) at $105,653/yr average annual pay. Minnesota leads employment.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$105,653/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
23
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 168; establishment count decreased by 3. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $528.7M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 217.6
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Iron Ore Mining NAICS 212210 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Minnesota | 3,953 |
| California | 10 |
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1
Total Loan Volume
$0M
Avg Loan Size
$10K
Jobs Supported
0
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1 (100%)
504 0 (0%)
Top SBA Lender
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
1 loans in this industry
New Business Share
100.0% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Iron Ore Mining?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 21221 level. Minnesota leads this industry nationally. The broader Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector runs a 17.6% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Iron Ore Mining?
23 business establishments. Together they employ 5,004 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Iron Ore Mining?
$105,653/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 217.6 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Iron Ore Mining employment?
Minnesota leads with 3,953 workers.
How much SBA lending does Iron Ore Mining receive?
Iron Ore Mining businesses received 1 SBA loans totaling $0 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $10K. These loans supported 0 jobs at origination. Most lending (100%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Its Census employment total exceeds 3% of that same 551-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Iron Ore Mining
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction
- 23 establishments, 5,004 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1 SBA loans on record. SBA lending 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 21221 · Data year: 2023
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.