Employment
69,919
Total employees (Census CBP)
Information ·NAICS 51511
NAICS 51511 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Radio Broadcasting - Industry Benchmarks
$76,426/yr average annual pay, with 32 SBA loans on record for NAICS 51511.
- 9.1%
- Information sector margin
- 70K
- Workers employed
- $76,426/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $37M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 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 9.1% net margin.
- 9.1%
- Information sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 70K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $76,426/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $37M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Radio Broadcasting
Radio Broadcasting sits inside Information, a sector that runs a 9.1% 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.
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.
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 9.1% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
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.
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 49% 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 Radio Broadcasting
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Information
- 4,645 establishments, 69,919 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 32 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 51511 · 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.