Employment
691,152
Total employees (Census CBP)
Retail Trade ·NAICS 44611
NAICS 44611 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Pharmacies and Drug Stores - Industry Benchmarks
$44,477/yr average annual pay, with 791 SBA loans on record for NAICS 44611.
- 4.2%
- Retail Trade sector margin
- 691K
- Workers employed
- $44,477/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $592M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 44611
California leads Pharmacies and Drug Stores activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Retail Trade sector runs a 4.2% net margin.
- 4.2%
- Retail Trade sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 691K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $44,477/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $592M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Pharmacies and Drug Stores
Pharmacies and Drug Stores sits inside Retail Trade, a sector that runs a 4.2% net margin overall.
41,792 establishments employ 691,152 workers (16.5/location) at $44,477/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Texas.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$44,477/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
41,792
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 18,068; establishment count decreased by 915. 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)
- $30.7B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 16.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Pharmacies and Drug Stores NAICS 446110 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 62,237 |
| New York | 55,087 |
| Texas | 52,381 |
| Florida | 50,697 |
| New Jersey | 26,348 |
| North Carolina | 25,025 |
| Michigan | 21,734 |
| Georgia | 20,501 |
| Massachusetts | 17,946 |
| Tennessee | 16,629 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
791
Total Loan Volume
$592M
Avg Loan Size
$748K
Jobs Supported
7,376
Program Breakdown
7(a) 737 (93%)
504 54 (7%)
Top SBA Lender
Live Oak Banking Company
97 loans in this industry
New Business Share
31.5% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (6 yrs)
2020 307
2021 305
2022 120
2023 35
2024 18
2025 6
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Pharmacies and Drug Stores?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 44611 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Retail Trade sector runs a 4.2% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Pharmacies and Drug Stores?
41,792 business establishments. Together they employ 691,152 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Pharmacies and Drug Stores?
$44,477/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 16.5 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Pharmacies and Drug Stores employment?
California leads with 62,237 workers. New York (55,087) and Texas (52,381) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Pharmacies and Drug Stores receive?
Pharmacies and Drug Stores businesses received 791 SBA loans totaling $592 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $748K. These loans supported 7,376 jobs at origination. Most lending (93%) 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 92% 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.
- Real Estate Property Managers 707,721
- Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers 708,273
- Family Clothing Stores 739,932
Benchmarking Pharmacies and Drug Stores
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Retail Trade
- 41,792 establishments, 691,152 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 791 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 44611 · 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.