Profit Margin
-5.7%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Information ·NAICS 518
NAICS 518 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services - Industry Benchmarks
$147,665/yr average annual pay, with 618 SBA loans on record for NAICS 518.
- -5.7%
- Net margin
- 630K
- Workers employed
- $147,665/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $354M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 518
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services runs a -5.7% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 19K establishments employing 630K workers.
- -5.7%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 630K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $147,665/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $354M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services 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 Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services sits inside Information at a -5.7% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $49.6B in aggregate receipts across 11,578 returns, averaging $4.3B 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.
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services sits in the 43rd percentile for employment and the 0th percentile for net margin among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Total Receipts
$49.6B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$-2806883000
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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%/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
11,578 returns
Margin: -5.7% · Receipts: $49.6B
Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022
58,644 returns
Margin: 28.2% · Receipts: $1.7B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 11,578
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $4.3B
- 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?
$49.6B in total annual receipts across all Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services businesses. Average per business: $4.3B.
How profitable is Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services?
-5.7% 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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services ranks #44 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment. According to IRS SOI 2013 IRS Statistics of Income, its reported pre-tax net margin ranks #75 of 75 at that same detail level.
Similar reported net margin
Nearest peer industries by ABS(IRS pre-tax margin) (-5.7% here).
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (629,527 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 518 · 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.