Employment
17,758
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 483211
NAICS 483211 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Inland Water Freight Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$96,389/yr average annual pay, with 36 SBA loans on record for NAICS 483211.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin
- 18K
- Workers employed
- $96,389/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $18M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 483211
Louisiana leads Inland Water Freight 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)
- 18K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $96,389/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $18M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Inland Water Freight Transportation
Inland Water Freight Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing, a sector that runs a 6.0% net margin overall.
393 establishments employ 17,758 workers (45.2/location) at $96,389/yr average annual pay. Louisiana leads employment, followed by Kentucky and Mississippi.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$96,389/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
393
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 1,527; establishment count increased by 11. 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)
- $1.7B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 45.2
Top States by Employment
Showing top 10 of 24 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
36
Total Loan Volume
$18M
Avg Loan Size
$507K
Jobs Supported
326
Program Breakdown
7(a) 32 (89%)
504 4 (11%)
Top SBA Lender
KeyBank National Association
4 loans in this industry
New Business Share
38.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (6 yrs)
2020 4
2021 5
2022 3
2023 9
2024 8
2025 7
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Inland Water Freight Transportation?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 483211 level. Louisiana 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 Freight Transportation?
393 business establishments. Together they employ 17,758 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Inland Water Freight Transportation?
$96,389/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 45.2 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Inland Water Freight Transportation employment?
Louisiana leads with 5,849 workers. Kentucky (3,145) and Mississippi (951) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Inland Water Freight Transportation receive?
Inland Water Freight Transportation businesses received 36 SBA loans totaling $18 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $507K. These loans supported 326 jobs at origination. Most lending (89%) 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 28% of that same 801-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.
- Coastal and Great Lakes Freight Transportation 17,775
- Baked Goods Stores 17,776
- Secondary Market Financing 17,832
Benchmarking Inland Water Freight Transportation
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 393 establishments, 17,758 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 36 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 483211 · 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.