Employment
818,561
Total employees (Census CBP)
Finance and Insurance ·NAICS 52421
NAICS 52421 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages - Industry Benchmarks
$90,831/yr average annual pay, with 4,754 SBA loans on record for NAICS 52421.
- 15.4%
- Finance and Insurance sector margin
- 819K
- Workers employed
- $90,831/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.2B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 52421
California leads Insurance Agencies and Brokerages activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Finance and Insurance sector runs a 15.4% net margin.
- 15.4%
- Finance and Insurance sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 819K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $90,831/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.2B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Insurance Agencies and Brokerages's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Insurance Agencies and Brokerages
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages sits inside Finance and Insurance, a sector that runs a 15.4% net margin overall.
133,728 establishments employ 818,561 workers (6.1/location) at $90,831/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages sits in the 93rd percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$90,831/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
133,728
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 10,928; establishment count decreased by 1,372. 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)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $74.4B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 6.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Insurance Agencies and Brokerages NAICS 524210 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 83,259 |
| Texas | 78,885 |
| Florida | 69,499 |
| New York | 51,373 |
| Illinois | 40,486 |
| Pennsylvania | 34,382 |
| Ohio | 27,942 |
| Georgia | 27,468 |
| North Carolina | 26,949 |
| Michigan | 26,370 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
4,754
Total Loan Volume
$2.2B
Avg Loan Size
$472K
Jobs Supported
24,962
Program Breakdown
7(a) 4,249 (89%)
504 505 (11%)
Top SBA Lender
Live Oak Banking Company
373 loans in this industry
New Business Share
17.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 721
2021 903
2022 719
2023 599
2024 765
2025 942
2026 105
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Insurance Agencies and Brokerages?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 52421 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Finance and Insurance sector runs a 15.4% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
How many businesses are in Insurance Agencies and Brokerages?
133,728 business establishments. Together they employ 818,561 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Insurance Agencies and Brokerages?
$90,831/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 6.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Insurance Agencies and Brokerages employment?
California leads with 83,259 workers. Texas (78,885) and Florida (69,499) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Insurance Agencies and Brokerages receive?
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages businesses received 4,754 SBA loans totaling $2.2 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $472K. These loans supported 24,962 jobs at origination. Most lending (89%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Insurance Agencies and Brokerages, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Insurance Agencies and Brokerages ranks #38 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (818,561 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Finance and Insurance · 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 52421 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.