Profit Margin
4.3%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Finance and Insurance ·NAICS 524
NAICS 524 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Insurance Carriers and Related Activities - Industry Benchmarks
$98,628/yr average annual pay, with 5,200 SBA loans on record for NAICS 524.
- 4.3%
- Net margin
- 3.0M
- Workers employed
- $98,628/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.4B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 524
Insurance Carriers and Related Activities runs a 4.3% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 176K establishments employing 3.0M workers.
- 4.3%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 3.0M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $98,628/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.4B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Insurance Carriers and Related Activities
Insurance Carriers and Related Activities sits inside Finance and Insurance at a 4.3% net margin (below the national median), $2.4T in aggregate receipts across 123,819 returns, averaging $19.6B per establishment.
176,459 establishments employ 2,964,086 workers (16.8/location) at $98,628/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Total Receipts
$2.4T
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$104.9B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
2,964,086
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$98,628/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
176,459
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 97,501; establishment count decreased by 4,512. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Insurance Carriers and Related Activities revenue goes
Workforce scale
Insurance Carriers and Related Activities margin vs national reference points
Insurance Carriers and Related Activities net margin 14.4%
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
123,819 returns 100%
Margin: 4.3% · Receipts: $2.4T
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 123,819
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $19.6B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $292.3B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 16.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities NAICS 5242 | 21.1% |
| Insurance Carriers NAICS 5241 | 4.8% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 270,629 |
| California | 236,503 |
| Florida | 233,532 |
| Illinois | 182,297 |
| New York | 164,125 |
| Pennsylvania | 143,132 |
| Ohio | 123,594 |
| Georgia | 96,530 |
| New Jersey | 92,225 |
| Massachusetts | 82,802 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
5,200
Total Loan Volume
$2.4B
Avg Loan Size
$470K
Jobs Supported
28,509
Program Breakdown
7(a) 4,668 (90%)
504 532 (10%)
Top SBA Lender
Live Oak Banking Company
385 loans in this industry
New Business Share
17.8% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 791
2021 954
2022 774
2023 679
2024 849
2025 1,035
2026 118
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Insurance Carriers and Related Activities?
$2.4T in total annual receipts across all Insurance Carriers and Related Activities businesses. Average per business: $19.6B.
How profitable is Insurance Carriers and Related Activities?
4.3% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Insurance Carriers and Related Activities?
176,459 business establishments. Together they employ 2,964,086 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Insurance Carriers and Related Activities?
$98,628/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 16.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Insurance Carriers and Related Activities employment?
Texas leads with 270,629 workers. California (236,503) and Florida (233,532) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Insurance Carriers and Related Activities receive?
Insurance Carriers and Related Activities businesses received 5,200 SBA loans totaling $2.4 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $470K. These loans supported 28,509 jobs at origination. Most lending (90%) 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: Insurance Carriers and Related Activities reports a higher net margin than 35% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 83% 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.
Benchmarking Insurance Carriers and Related Activities
- Net margin: 4.3% vs sector. Browse Finance and Insurance
- 176,459 establishments, 2,964,086 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 5,200 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 524 · 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.