Employment
21,136
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 48321
NAICS 48321 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Inland Water Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$91,781/yr average annual pay, with 43 SBA loans on record for NAICS 48321.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin
- 21K
- Workers employed
- $91,781/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $20M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 48321
Kentucky leads Inland Water Transportation activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Transportation and Warehousing sector runs a 6.0% net margin.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 21K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $91,781/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $20M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Inland Water Transportation
Inland Water Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing, a sector that runs a 6.0% net margin overall.
692 establishments employ 21,136 workers (30.5/location) at $91,781/yr average annual pay. Kentucky leads employment, followed by Mississippi and Illinois.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$91,781/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
692
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 1,680; establishment count increased by 7. 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)
- $1.9B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 30.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Inland Water Freight Transportation NAICS 483211 | N/A |
| Inland Water Passenger Transportation NAICS 483212 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Kentucky | 3,168 |
| Mississippi | 977 |
| Illinois | 655 |
| Virginia | 248 |
| Maine | 26 |
| Alaska | 23 |
| Hawaii | 7 |
| Michigan | 4 |
Showing top 10 of 29 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
43
Total Loan Volume
$20M
Avg Loan Size
$470K
Jobs Supported
392
Program Breakdown
7(a) 39 (91%)
504 4 (9%)
Top SBA Lender
Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company
4 loans in this industry
New Business Share
37.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (6 yrs)
2020 4
2021 5
2022 3
2023 14
2024 9
2025 8
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Inland Water Transportation?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 48321 level. Kentucky leads this industry nationally. The broader Transportation and Warehousing sector runs a 6.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Inland Water Transportation?
692 business establishments. Together they employ 21,136 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Inland Water Transportation?
$91,781/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 30.5 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Inland Water Transportation employment?
Kentucky leads with 3,168 workers. Mississippi (977) and Illinois (655) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Inland Water Transportation receive?
Inland Water Transportation businesses received 43 SBA loans totaling $20 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $470K. These loans supported 392 jobs at origination. Most lending (91%) 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 18% 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.
Benchmarking Inland Water Transportation
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 692 establishments, 21,136 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 43 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 48321 · 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.