Employment
1,036,160
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 4921
NAICS 4921 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Couriers and Express Delivery Services - Industry Benchmarks
1,115 SBA loans on record, $582M in volume, for NAICS 4921.
- 11K
- Establishments
- 1.0M
- Workers employed
- N/A
- Avg payroll / employee
- $582M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4921
California leads Couriers and Express Delivery Services activity nationally, across 11K establishments employing 1.0M workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 11K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 1.0M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- N/A
- Avg payroll / employee
- $582M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Couriers and Express Delivery Services
Couriers and Express Delivery Services sits inside Transportation and Warehousing.
10,859 establishments employ 1,036,160 workers (95.4/location). California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
N/A
Annual compensation
Establishments
10,859
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 11,971; establishment count decreased by 808. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 95.4
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Couriers and Express Delivery Services NAICS 49211 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 125,951 |
| Texas | 88,137 |
| Florida | 66,114 |
| Illinois | 58,388 |
| New York | 47,269 |
| New Jersey | 44,117 |
| Georgia | 43,558 |
| Pennsylvania | 42,036 |
| North Carolina | 32,530 |
| Ohio | 32,497 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
1,115
Total Loan Volume
$582M
Avg Loan Size
$522K
Jobs Supported
17,280
Program Breakdown
7(a) 1,100 (99%)
504 15 (1%)
Top SBA Lender
TD Bank, National Association
70 loans in this industry
New Business Share
34.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 132
2021 173
2022 153
2023 183
2024 205
2025 236
2026 33
Frequently Asked Questions
How many businesses are in Couriers and Express Delivery Services?
10,859 business establishments. Together they employ 1,036,160 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Couriers and Express Delivery Services?
Average payroll data for Couriers and Express Delivery Services is not available in the current Census CBP dataset.
Which states have the most Couriers and Express Delivery Services employment?
California leads with 125,951 workers. Texas (88,137) and Florida (66,114) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Couriers and Express Delivery Services receive?
Couriers and Express Delivery Services businesses received 1,115 SBA loans totaling $582 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $522K. These loans supported 17,280 jobs at origination. Most lending (99%) 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 88% of that same 259-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.
- Offices of Dentists 1,028,889
- Child Day Care Services 1,045,052
- Gasoline Stations 1,016,960
Benchmarking Couriers and Express Delivery Services
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 10,859 establishments, 1,036,160 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 1,115 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 4921 · 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.