Profit Margin
13.8%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing ·NAICS 53
NAICS 53 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing - Industry Benchmarks
$70,076/yr average annual pay, with 10,446 SBA loans on record for NAICS 53.
- 13.8%
- Net margin
- 2.4M
- Workers employed
- $70,076/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $6.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 53
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing runs a 13.8% pre-tax net margin - above average for US industries - across 470K establishments employing 2.4M workers.
- 13.8%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 2.4M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $70,076/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $6.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Real Estate and Rental and Leasing's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 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 Statistics of Income 2023 and Census County Business Patterns
Benchmarking Insights for Real Estate and Rental and Leasing
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing sits inside Real Estate and Rental and Leasing at a 13.8% net margin (above average for US industries), $1.8T in aggregate receipts across 4,611,164 returns, averaging $381.6M per establishment.
469,562 establishments employ 2,391,886 workers (5.1/location) at $70,076/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Total Receipts
$1.8T
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$243.1B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
2,391,886
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$70,076/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
469,562
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 58,761; establishment count increased by 2,906. 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 Real Estate and Rental and Leasing revenue goes
Workforce scale
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing margin vs national reference points
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing net margin 46.0%
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
642,008 returns 14%
Margin: 16.3% · Receipts: $428.3B
Partnership
2,282,238 returns 49%
Margin: 25.0% · Receipts: $312.3B
S Corporation
155,012 returns 3%
Margin: 6.5% · Receipts: $893.1B
Sole Proprietorship
1,531,906 returns 33%
Margin: 29.3% · Receipts: $125.8B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 4,611,164
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $381.6M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $167.6B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 5.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Lessors of Nonfinancial Intangible Assets (except Copyrighted Works) NAICS 533 | 20.0% |
| Real Estate NAICS 531 | 24.7% |
| Rental and Leasing Services NAICS 532 | 3.4% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 322,016 |
| Texas | 233,313 |
| Florida | 208,867 |
| New York | 179,784 |
| Georgia | 82,155 |
| Illinois | 81,757 |
| Ohio | 71,789 |
| Pennsylvania | 70,580 |
| New Jersey | 67,341 |
| North Carolina | 66,043 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
10,446
Total Loan Volume
$6.9B
Avg Loan Size
$664K
Jobs Supported
71,593
Program Breakdown
7(a) 8,771 (84%)
504 1,675 (16%)
Top SBA Lender
U.S. Bank, National Association
556 loans in this industry
New Business Share
33.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 1,384
2021 2,016
2022 1,732
2023 1,684
2024 1,652
2025 1,718
2026 260
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Real Estate and Rental and Leasing?
$1.8T in total annual receipts across all Real Estate and Rental and Leasing businesses. Average per business: $381.6M.
How profitable is Real Estate and Rental and Leasing?
13.8% net profit margin, above average for US industries.
How many businesses are in Real Estate and Rental and Leasing?
469,562 business establishments. Together they employ 2,391,886 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Real Estate and Rental and Leasing?
$70,076/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 5.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Real Estate and Rental and Leasing employment?
California leads with 322,016 workers. Texas (233,313) and Florida (208,867) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Real Estate and Rental and Leasing receive?
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing businesses received 10,446 SBA loans totaling $6.9 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $664K. These loans supported 71,593 jobs at origination. Most lending (84%) 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: Real Estate and Rental and Leasing reports a higher net margin than 74% of the 19 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 16% of that same 19-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.
- Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 2,491,408
- Information 3,809,059
- Management of Companies and Enterprises 3,855,720
Benchmarking Real Estate and Rental and Leasing
- Net margin: 13.8% vs sector. Browse Real Estate and Rental and Leasing
- 469,562 establishments, 2,391,886 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 10,446 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 53 · 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.