Employment
43,082
Total employees (Census CBP)
Utilities ·NAICS 22131
NAICS 22131 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Water Supply and Irrigation Systems - Industry Benchmarks
$76,890/yr average annual pay, with 260 SBA loans on record for NAICS 22131.
- 2.6%
- Utilities sector margin
- 43K
- Workers employed
- $76,890/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $126M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 22131
Texas leads Water Supply and Irrigation Systems activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Utilities sector runs a 2.6% net margin.
- 2.6%
- Utilities sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 43K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $76,890/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $126M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Water Supply and Irrigation Systems
Water Supply and Irrigation Systems sits inside Utilities, a sector that runs a 2.6% net margin overall.
4,554 establishments employ 43,082 workers (9.5/location) at $76,890/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$76,890/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
4,554
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 2,372; establishment count increased by 124. 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)
- $3.3B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 9.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Water Supply and Irrigation Systems NAICS 221310 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 6,471 |
| California | 5,540 |
| Florida | 2,833 |
| Arizona | 1,676 |
| Mississippi | 1,652 |
| Ohio | 1,176 |
| Connecticut | 952 |
| New York | 667 |
| Washington | 657 |
| Colorado | 594 |
Showing top 10 of 50 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
260
Total Loan Volume
$126M
Avg Loan Size
$485K
Jobs Supported
2,166
Program Breakdown
7(a) 247 (95%)
504 13 (5%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
21 loans in this industry
New Business Share
31.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 37
2021 51
2022 40
2023 31
2024 43
2025 56
2026 2
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Water Supply and Irrigation Systems?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 22131 level. Texas leads this industry nationally. The broader Utilities sector runs a 2.6% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Water Supply and Irrigation Systems?
4,554 business establishments. Together they employ 43,082 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Water Supply and Irrigation Systems?
$76,890/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 9.5 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Water Supply and Irrigation Systems employment?
Texas leads with 6,471 workers. California (5,540) and Florida (2,833) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Water Supply and Irrigation Systems receive?
Water Supply and Irrigation Systems businesses received 260 SBA loans totaling $126 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $485K. These loans supported 2,166 jobs at origination. Most lending (95%) 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 35% 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.
- Stone Mining and Quarrying 43,124
- Logging 42,916
- Paper Mills 42,893
Benchmarking Water Supply and Irrigation Systems
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Utilities
- 4,554 establishments, 43,082 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 260 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 22131 · 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.