Profit Margin
3.6%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 483
NAICS 483 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Water Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$108,243/yr average annual pay, with 86 SBA loans on record for NAICS 483.
- 3.6%
- Net margin
- 63K
- Workers employed
- $108,243/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $49M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 483
Water Transportation runs a 3.6% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 2K establishments employing 63K workers.
- 3.6%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 63K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $108,243/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $49M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Water Transportation
Water Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing at a 3.6% net margin (below the national median), $32.9B in aggregate receipts across 11,805 returns, averaging $2.8B per establishment.
1,790 establishments employ 62,806 workers (35.1/location) at $108,243/yr average annual pay. Louisiana leads employment, followed by Washington and Kentucky.
Total Receipts
$32.9B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$1.2B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
62,806
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$108,243/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
1,790
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 2,171; establishment count increased by 10. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Water Transportation revenue goes
Workforce scale
Water Transportation margin vs national reference points
Water Transportation net margin 12.0%
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
3,832 returns 32%
Margin: 4.1% · Receipts: $31.4B
Sole Proprietorship
7,973 returns 68%
Margin: -6.6% · Receipts: $1.5B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 11,805
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $2.8B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $6.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 35.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Deep Sea, Coastal, and Great Lakes Water Transportation NAICS 4831 | N/A |
| Inland Water Transportation NAICS 4832 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Louisiana | 10,246 |
| Washington | 5,077 |
| Kentucky | 3,168 |
| New York | 2,520 |
| Alaska | 1,165 |
| New Jersey | 1,048 |
| Mississippi | 985 |
| Illinois | 740 |
| Michigan | 545 |
| Minnesota | 187 |
Showing top 10 of 36 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
86
Total Loan Volume
$49M
Avg Loan Size
$572K
Jobs Supported
821
Program Breakdown
7(a) 80 (93%)
504 6 (7%)
Top SBA Lender
Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company
9 loans in this industry
New Business Share
33.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 6
2021 15
2022 15
2023 19
2024 16
2025 14
2026 1
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Water Transportation?
$32.9B in total annual receipts across all Water Transportation businesses. Average per business: $2.8B.
How profitable is Water Transportation?
3.6% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Water Transportation?
1,790 business establishments. Together they employ 62,806 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Water Transportation?
$108,243/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 35.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Water Transportation employment?
Louisiana leads with 10,246 workers. Washington (5,077) and Kentucky (3,168) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Water Transportation receive?
Water Transportation businesses received 86 SBA loans totaling $49 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $572K. These loans supported 821 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: Water Transportation reports a higher net margin than 28% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 8% of that same 77-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.
- Apparel Manufacturing 63,163
- Forestry and Logging 47,629
- Textile Mills 79,765
Benchmarking Water Transportation
- Net margin: 3.6% vs sector. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 1,790 establishments, 62,806 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 86 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 483 · 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.