Profit Margin
7.7%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Information ·NAICS 51
NAICS 51 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Information - Industry Benchmarks
$149,198/yr average annual pay, with 3,669 SBA loans on record for NAICS 51.
- 7.7%
- Net margin
- 3.8M
- Workers employed
- $149,198/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.8B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 51
Information runs a 7.7% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 161K establishments employing 3.8M workers.
- 7.7%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 3.8M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $149,198/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $1.8B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Information's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Information 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 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Information
Information sits inside Information at a 7.7% net margin (in line with the national median), $1.2T in aggregate receipts across 127,107 returns, averaging $9.4B per establishment.
160,704 establishments employ 3,809,059 workers (23.7/location) at $149,198/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by New York and Texas.
Information sits in the 26th percentile for employment and the 73rd percentile for net margin among 2-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$1.2T
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$91.7B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
3,809,059
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$149,198/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
160,704
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 175,047; establishment count decreased by 242. 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)Where each dollar of Information revenue goes
Workforce scale
Information margin vs national reference points
Information net margin 25.5%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
127,107 returns
Margin: 7.7% · Receipts: $1.2T
Partnership SOI 2022
59,824 returns
Margin: 14.2% · Receipts: $391.6B
S Corporation SOI 2017
37,211 returns
Margin: 5.5% · Receipts: $162.1B
Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022
474,727 returns
Margin: 26.5% · Receipts: $16.1B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 127,107
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $9.4B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $568.3B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 23.7
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Broadcasting (except Internet) NAICS 515 | 10.5% |
| Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services NAICS 518 | -5.7% |
| Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries NAICS 512 | 9.3% |
| Other Information Services NAICS 519 | 6.8% |
| Publishing Industries (except Internet) NAICS 511 | 9.4% |
| Telecommunications NAICS 517 | 7.0% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 891,636 |
| New York | 328,460 |
| Texas | 293,377 |
| Florida | 175,767 |
| Massachusetts | 141,099 |
| Georgia | 133,617 |
| Illinois | 120,174 |
| Pennsylvania | 112,393 |
| Virginia | 111,454 |
| Colorado | 101,428 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
3,669
Total Loan Volume
$1.8B
Avg Loan Size
$503K
Jobs Supported
32,894
Program Breakdown
7(a) 3,429 (93%)
504 240 (7%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
212 loans in this industry
New Business Share
19.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 452
2021 515
2022 475
2023 559
2024 744
2025 813
2026 111
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Information?
$1.2T in total annual receipts across all Information businesses. Average per business: $9.4B.
How profitable is Information?
7.7% net profit margin, in line with the national median.
How many businesses are in Information?
160,704 business establishments. Together they employ 3,809,059 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Information?
$149,198/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 23.7 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Information employment?
California leads with 891,636 workers. New York (328,460) and Texas (293,377) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Information receive?
Information businesses received 3,669 SBA loans totaling $1.8 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $503K. These loans supported 32,894 jobs at origination. Most lending (93%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Information, both at NAICS level 2 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Information ranks #14 of 19 U.S. industries at the 2-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #4 of 15 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (7.7% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (3,809,059 here).
Read with this industry: Understanding profit margins by industry · Information · 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 51 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
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.