Manufacturing ·NAICS 3251

NAICS 3251 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023

Basic Chemical Manufacturing - Industry Benchmarks

76 SBA loans on record, $89M in volume, for NAICS 3251.

6.8%
Net margin
N/A
Workers employed
N/A
Avg payroll / employee
$89M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · NAICS 3251

Basic Chemical Manufacturing runs a 6.8% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 3K establishments employing N/A workers.

6.8%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
N/A
Workers employed (Census CBP)
N/A
Avg payroll / employee
$89M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Use Basic Chemical Manufacturing's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.

Basic Chemical Manufacturing 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 Basic Chemical Manufacturing

Basic Chemical Manufacturing sits inside Manufacturing at a 6.8% net margin (below the national median), $227.5B in aggregate receipts across 704 returns, averaging $323.1B per establishment.

2,621 establishments employ N/A workers. Ohio leads employment, followed by New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Basic Chemical Manufacturing sits in the 67th percentile for net margin among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.

Profit Margin

6.8%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$227.5B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$15.5B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

N/A

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

N/A

Annual compensation

Establishments

2,621

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

establishment count decreased by 24. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

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Where each dollar of Basic Chemical Manufacturing revenue goes

Basic Chemical Manufacturing margin vs national reference points

Basic Chemical Manufacturing net margin 22.7%
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
704 returns 100%

Margin: 6.8% · Receipts: $227.5B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
704
Avg Receipts per Business
$323.1B

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Industrial Gas Manufacturing

NAICS 32512

 N/A
Other Basic Inorganic Chemical Manufacturing

NAICS 32518

 N/A
Other Basic Organic Chemical Manufacturing

NAICS 32519

 N/A
Petrochemical Manufacturing

NAICS 32511

 N/A
Synthetic Dye and Pigment Manufacturing

NAICS 32513

 N/A

Top States by Employment

State Employment
Ohio 8,212
New Jersey 6,088
Pennsylvania 4,538
New York 4,152
Iowa 3,896
Alabama 3,821
Georgia 3,521
Missouri 3,333
Kansas 2,260
West Virginia 2,012

Showing top 10 of 48 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

76

Total Loan Volume

$89M

Avg Loan Size

$1165K

Jobs Supported

1,041

Program Breakdown

7(a) 64 (84%)
504 12 (16%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

6 loans in this industry

New Business Share

18.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (6 yrs)

2020
4
2021
15
2022
11
2023
14
2024
17
2025
15

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Basic Chemical Manufacturing?
$227.5B in total annual receipts across all Basic Chemical Manufacturing businesses. Average per business: $323.1B.
How profitable is Basic Chemical Manufacturing?
6.8% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Basic Chemical Manufacturing?
2,621 business establishments.
What is the average payroll per employee in Basic Chemical Manufacturing?
Average payroll data for Basic Chemical Manufacturing is not available in the current Census CBP dataset.
Which states have the most Basic Chemical Manufacturing employment?
Ohio leads with 8,212 workers. New Jersey (6,088) and Pennsylvania (4,538) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Basic Chemical Manufacturing receive?
Basic Chemical Manufacturing businesses received 76 SBA loans totaling $89 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1165K. These loans supported 1,041 jobs at origination. Most lending (84%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers

Two IRS/Census peer sets for Basic Chemical Manufacturing, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.

According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #41 of 126 at that same detail level.

Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Manufacturing · 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 3251 · 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.