Employment
252,338
Total employees (Census CBP)
Retail Trade ·NAICS 45111
NAICS 45111 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Sporting Goods Stores - Industry Benchmarks
$29,426/yr average annual pay, with 615 SBA loans on record for NAICS 45111.
- 20K
- Establishments
- 252K
- Workers employed
- $29,426/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $304M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 45111
California leads Sporting Goods Stores activity nationally, across 20K establishments employing 252K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 20K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 252K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $29,426/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $304M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Sporting Goods Stores's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Sporting Goods 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 Stores
Sporting Goods Stores sits inside Retail Trade.
20,373 establishments employ 252,338 workers (12.4/location) at $29,426/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Florida and Colorado.
Sporting Goods Stores sits in the 83rd percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$29,426/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
20,373
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 454; establishment count decreased by 262. 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)
- $7.4B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 12.4
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Sporting Goods Stores NAICS 451110 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 25,284 |
| Florida | 13,717 |
| Colorado | 10,935 |
| New York | 9,103 |
| Pennsylvania | 8,563 |
| Ohio | 7,997 |
| North Carolina | 7,871 |
| Michigan | 7,829 |
| Illinois | 7,118 |
| Minnesota | 6,933 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
615
Total Loan Volume
$304M
Avg Loan Size
$494K
Jobs Supported
5,495
Program Breakdown
7(a) 513 (83%)
504 102 (17%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
43 loans in this industry
New Business Share
22.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (5 yrs)
2020 181
2021 263
2022 145
2023 19
2024 7
Frequently Asked Questions
How many businesses are in Sporting Goods Stores?
20,373 business establishments. Together they employ 252,338 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Sporting Goods Stores?
$29,426/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 12.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Sporting Goods Stores employment?
California leads with 25,284 workers. Florida (13,717) and Colorado (10,935) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Sporting Goods Stores receive?
Sporting Goods Stores businesses received 615 SBA loans totaling $304 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $494K. These loans supported 5,495 jobs at origination. Most lending (83%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Sporting Goods Stores, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Sporting Goods Stores ranks #94 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (252,338 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 45111 · 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.