Profit Margin
-4.5%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Information ·NAICS 518
NAICS 518 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services - Industry Benchmarks
$147,665/yr average annual pay, with 618 SBA loans on record for NAICS 518.
- -4.5%
- Net margin
- 630K
- Workers employed
- $147,665/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $354M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 518
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services runs a -4.5% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 19K establishments employing 630K workers.
- -4.5%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 630K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $147,665/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $354M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services sits inside Information at a -4.5% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $51.3B in aggregate receipts across 70,222 returns, averaging $730.6M per establishment.
18,544 establishments employ 629,527 workers (34.0/location) at $147,665/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and New York.
Total Receipts
$51.3B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$-2331286000
Pre-tax net income
Employment
629,527
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$147,665/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
18,544
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 59,339; establishment count increased by 1,005. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services revenue goes
Workforce scale
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services margin vs national reference points
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services net margin 0.0%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
C Corporation
11,578 returns 16%
Margin: -5.7% · Receipts: $49.6B
Sole Proprietorship
58,644 returns 84%
Margin: 28.2% · Receipts: $1.7B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 70,222
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $730.6M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $93.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 34.0
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services NAICS 5182 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 123,859 |
| Texas | 56,290 |
| New York | 39,730 |
| Florida | 30,385 |
| Massachusetts | 27,905 |
| Georgia | 26,230 |
| Illinois | 21,934 |
| Pennsylvania | 19,443 |
| New Jersey | 18,632 |
| Colorado | 17,689 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
618
Total Loan Volume
$354M
Avg Loan Size
$573K
Jobs Supported
6,209
Program Breakdown
7(a) 591 (96%)
504 27 (4%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
71 loans in this industry
New Business Share
18.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 57
2021 69
2022 93
2023 81
2024 156
2025 148
2026 14
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services?
$51.3B in total annual receipts across all Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services businesses. Average per business: $730.6M.
How profitable is Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services?
-4.5% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services?
18,544 business establishments. Together they employ 629,527 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services?
$147,665/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 34.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services employment?
California leads with 123,859 workers. Texas (56,290) and New York (39,730) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services receive?
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services businesses received 618 SBA loans totaling $354 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $573K. These loans supported 6,209 jobs at origination. Most lending (96%) 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: Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services reports a higher net margin than 1% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 43% of that same 77-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 reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Utilities 667,277
- Miscellaneous Manufacturing 557,897
- Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries 542,145
Benchmarking Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
- Net margin: -4.5% vs sector. Browse Information
- 18,544 establishments, 629,527 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 618 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 518 · 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.