Profit Margin
6.6%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 5413
NAICS 5413 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services - Industry Benchmarks
$102,782/yr average annual pay, with 4,324 SBA loans on record for NAICS 5413.
- 6.6%
- Net margin
- 1.7M
- Workers employed
- $102,782/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.2B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 5413
Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services runs a 6.6% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 117K establishments employing 1.7M workers.
- 6.6%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 1.7M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $102,782/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $2.2B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services
Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services at a 6.6% net margin (below the national median), $257.9B in aggregate receipts across 391,544 returns, averaging $658.8M per establishment.
117,417 establishments employ 1,741,313 workers (14.8/location) at $102,782/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Total Receipts
$257.9B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$17.1B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
1,741,313
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$102,782/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
117,417
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 78,302; establishment count increased by 361. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services revenue goes
Workforce scale
Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services margin vs national reference points
Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services net margin 22.0%
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
101,670 returns 26%
Margin: 4.2% · Receipts: $235.2B
Sole Proprietorship
289,874 returns 74%
Margin: 31.8% · Receipts: $22.7B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 391,544
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $658.8M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $179.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 14.8
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Architectural Services NAICS 54131 | N/A |
| Building Inspection Services NAICS 54135 | N/A |
| Drafting Services NAICS 54134 | N/A |
| Engineering Services NAICS 54133 | N/A |
| Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services NAICS 54136 | N/A |
| Landscape Architectural Services NAICS 54132 | N/A |
| Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services NAICS 54137 | N/A |
| Testing Laboratories NAICS 54138 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 204,348 |
| Texas | 180,983 |
| Florida | 104,512 |
| Virginia | 85,320 |
| New York | 76,041 |
| Pennsylvania | 69,991 |
| Colorado | 54,377 |
| Illinois | 54,153 |
| Maryland | 51,834 |
| Massachusetts | 50,379 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
4,324
Total Loan Volume
$2.2B
Avg Loan Size
$504K
Jobs Supported
46,004
Program Breakdown
7(a) 3,760 (87%)
504 564 (13%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
286 loans in this industry
New Business Share
18.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 545
2021 640
2022 610
2023 650
2024 828
2025 922
2026 129
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services?
$257.9B in total annual receipts across all Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services businesses. Average per business: $658.8M.
How profitable is Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services?
6.6% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services?
117,417 business establishments. Together they employ 1,741,313 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services?
$102,782/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 14.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services employment?
California leads with 204,348 workers. Texas (180,983) and Florida (104,512) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services receive?
Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services businesses received 4,324 SBA loans totaling $2.2 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $504K. These loans supported 46,004 jobs at origination. Most lending (87%) 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: Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services reports a higher net margin than 64% of the 126 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 95% of that same 259-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.
- Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services 1,736,343
- Insurance Carriers 1,653,582
- Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools 1,862,528
Benchmarking Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services
- Net margin: 6.6% vs sector. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 117,417 establishments, 1,741,313 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 4,324 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 5413 · 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.