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.

Profit Margin

4.3%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

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 FY2020–2026

SBA 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

View SBA lending rankings →

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.

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

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.