Profit Margin
2.4%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Manufacturing ·NAICS 3221
NAICS 3221 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills - Industry Benchmarks
$94,271/yr average annual pay, with 11 SBA loans on record for NAICS 3221.
- 2.4%
- Net margin
- 91K
- Workers employed
- $94,271/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $5M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 3221
Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills runs a 2.4% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 402 establishments employing 91K workers.
- 2.4%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 91K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $94,271/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $5M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills
Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills sits inside Manufacturing at a 2.4% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $68.1B in aggregate receipts across 757 returns, averaging $90.0B per establishment.
402 establishments employ 90,792 workers (225.8/location) at $94,271/yr average annual pay. Alabama leads employment, followed by Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Total Receipts
$68.1B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$1.6B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
90,792
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$94,271/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
402
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 948; establishment count decreased by 14. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills revenue goes
Workforce scale
Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills margin vs national reference points
Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills net margin 7.9%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
757 returns 100%
Margin: 2.4% · Receipts: $68.1B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 757
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $90.0B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $8.6B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 225.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Paper Mills NAICS 32212 | N/A |
| Paperboard Mills NAICS 32213 | N/A |
| Pulp Mills NAICS 32211 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Alabama | 7,484 |
| Wisconsin | 7,409 |
| Pennsylvania | 4,018 |
| North Carolina | 3,763 |
| Michigan | 3,291 |
| Virginia | 3,092 |
| Maine | 2,722 |
| Tennessee | 2,537 |
| Texas | 2,475 |
| Oklahoma | 2,423 |
Showing top 10 of 35 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
11
Total Loan Volume
$5M
Avg Loan Size
$457K
Jobs Supported
51
Program Breakdown
7(a) 10 (91%)
504 1 (9%)
Top SBA Lender
TD Bank, National Association
2 loans in this industry
New Business Share
18.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (5 yrs)
2020 1
2021 6
2022 2
2024 1
2025 1
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills?
$68.1B in total annual receipts across all Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills businesses. Average per business: $90.0B.
How profitable is Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills?
2.4% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills?
402 business establishments. Together they employ 90,792 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills?
$94,271/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 225.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills employment?
Alabama leads with 7,484 workers. Wisconsin (7,409) and Pennsylvania (4,018) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills receive?
Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills businesses received 11 SBA loans totaling $5 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $457K. These loans supported 51 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) 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: Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills reports a higher net margin than 19% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 31% of that same 259-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 reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Pulp, Paper, and Paperboard Mills
- Net margin: 2.4% vs sector. Browse Manufacturing
- 402 establishments, 90,792 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 11 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 3221 · 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.