Employment
419,984
Total employees (Census CBP)
Retail Trade ·NAICS 4511
NAICS 4511 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores - Industry Benchmarks
$27,185/yr average annual pay, with 960 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4511.
- 36K
- Establishments
- 420K
- Workers employed
- $27,185/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $424M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4511
California leads Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores activity nationally, across 36K establishments employing 420K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 36K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 420K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $27,185/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $424M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores
Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores sits inside Retail Trade.
36,008 establishments employ 419,984 workers (11.7/location) at $27,185/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores sits in the 71st percentile for employment among 4-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$27,185/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
36,008
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 2,533; establishment count decreased by 34. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $11.4B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 11.7
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Hobby, Toy, and Game Stores NAICS 45112 | N/A |
| Musical Instrument and Supplies Stores NAICS 45114 | N/A |
| Sewing, Needlework, and Piece Goods Stores NAICS 45113 | N/A |
| Sporting Goods Stores NAICS 45111 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 42,585 |
| Texas | 38,296 |
| Florida | 22,955 |
| New York | 17,440 |
| Colorado | 14,866 |
| Pennsylvania | 14,652 |
| Ohio | 14,337 |
| Illinois | 13,483 |
| Michigan | 13,197 |
| North Carolina | 12,913 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
960
Total Loan Volume
$424M
Avg Loan Size
$442K
Jobs Supported
7,792
Program Breakdown
7(a) 810 (84%)
504 150 (16%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
76 loans in this industry
New Business Share
24.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (6 yrs)
2020 290
2021 399
2022 207
2023 40
2024 20
2025 4
Frequently Asked Questions
How many businesses are in Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores?
36,008 business establishments. Together they employ 419,984 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores?
$27,185/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 11.7 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores employment?
California leads with 42,585 workers. Texas (38,296) and Florida (22,955) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores receive?
Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores businesses received 960 SBA loans totaling $424 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $442K. These loans supported 7,792 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 Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores, both at NAICS level 4 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Sporting Goods, Hobby, and Musical Instrument Stores ranks #75 of 259 U.S. industries at the 4-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (419,984 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Retail Trade · 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 4511 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.