Employment
7,007
Total employees (Census CBP)
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 54136
NAICS 54136 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services - Industry Benchmarks
$109,086/yr average annual pay, with 36 SBA loans on record for NAICS 54136.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
- 7K
- Workers employed
- $109,086/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $10M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 54136
Louisiana leads Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 14.0% net margin.
- 14.0%
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 7K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $109,086/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $10M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services
Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 14.0% net margin overall.
993 establishments employ 7,007 workers (7.1/location) at $109,086/yr average annual pay. Louisiana leads employment, followed by Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$109,086/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
993
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment decreased by 242; establishment count decreased by 26. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $764.4M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 7.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services NAICS 541360 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Louisiana | 514 |
| Pennsylvania | 171 |
| Ohio | 121 |
| Michigan | 57 |
| Mississippi | 57 |
| Wisconsin | 16 |
| Nebraska | 3 |
| North Dakota | 3 |
Showing top 10 of 44 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
36
Total Loan Volume
$10M
Avg Loan Size
$273K
Jobs Supported
236
Program Breakdown
7(a) 34 (94%)
504 2 (6%)
Top SBA Lender
Newtek Bank, National Association
3 loans in this industry
New Business Share
30.6% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 3
2021 5
2022 3
2023 3
2024 10
2025 8
2026 4
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 54136 level. Louisiana leads this industry nationally. The broader Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector runs a 14.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services?
993 business establishments. Together they employ 7,007 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services?
$109,086/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 7.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services employment?
Louisiana leads with 514 workers. Pennsylvania (171) and Ohio (121) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services receive?
Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services businesses received 36 SBA loans totaling $10 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $273K. These loans supported 236 jobs at origination. Most lending (94%) 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: Its Census employment total exceeds 5% of that same 551-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 workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Fabric Coating Mills 6,992
- Sewage Treatment Facilities 6,989
- Explosives Manufacturing 7,034
Benchmarking Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- 993 establishments, 7,007 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 36 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 54136 · 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.