Employment
69,919
Total employees (Census CBP)
Information ·NAICS 51511
NAICS 51511 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Radio Broadcasting - Industry Benchmarks
$76,426/yr average annual pay, with 32 SBA loans on record for NAICS 51511.
- 7.7%
- Information sector margin
- 70K
- Workers employed
- $76,426/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $37M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 51511
New York leads Radio Broadcasting activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Information sector runs a 7.7% net margin.
- 7.7%
- Information sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 70K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $76,426/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $37M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Radio Broadcasting's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Radio Broadcasting 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Radio Broadcasting
Radio Broadcasting sits inside Information, a sector that runs a 7.7% net margin overall.
4,645 establishments employ 69,919 workers (15.1/location) at $76,426/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by California and Texas.
Radio Broadcasting sits in the 49th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$76,426/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
4,645
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 828; establishment count decreased by 159. 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)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $5.3B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 15.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Radio Networks NAICS 515111 | N/A |
| Radio Stations NAICS 515112 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| New York | 7,364 |
| California | 6,552 |
| Texas | 4,860 |
| Florida | 2,981 |
| District of Columbia | 2,380 |
| Ohio | 2,158 |
| Michigan | 1,885 |
| Tennessee | 1,796 |
| Wisconsin | 1,649 |
| North Carolina | 1,499 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
32
Total Loan Volume
$37M
Avg Loan Size
$1153K
Jobs Supported
397
Program Breakdown
7(a) 32 (100%)
504 0 (0%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
2 loans in this industry
New Business Share
21.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (3 yrs)
2020 15
2021 11
2022 6
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Radio Broadcasting?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 51511 level. New York leads this industry nationally. The broader Information sector runs a 7.7% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
How many businesses are in Radio Broadcasting?
4,645 business establishments. Together they employ 69,919 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Radio Broadcasting?
$76,426/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 15.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Radio Broadcasting employment?
New York leads with 7,364 workers. California (6,552) and Texas (4,860) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Radio Broadcasting receive?
Radio Broadcasting businesses received 32 SBA loans totaling $37 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $1153K. These loans supported 397 jobs at origination. Most lending (100%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Radio Broadcasting, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Radio Broadcasting ranks #283 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (69,919 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · 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 51511 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.