Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services ·NAICS 541715

NAICS 541715 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) - Industry Benchmarks

$147,945/yr average annual pay, with 141 SBA loans on record for NAICS 541715.

14.0%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services sector margin
596K
Workers employed
$147,945/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$92M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 541715

California leads Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) 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)
596K
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$147,945/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$92M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)

Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) sits inside Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, a sector that runs a 14.0% net margin overall.

12,929 establishments employ 596,332 workers (46.1/location) at $147,945/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Massachusetts and North Carolina.

Employment

596,332

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$147,945/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

12,929

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 25,100; establishment count increased by 455. 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)
$88.2B
Avg Employees per Establishment
46.1

Top States by Employment

State Employment
California 102,980
Massachusetts 53,999
North Carolina 32,238
Michigan 28,876
Texas 26,383
New Jersey 25,898
New York 21,223
Pennsylvania 20,627
Maryland 19,020
Ohio 14,400

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

141

Total Loan Volume

$92M

Avg Loan Size

$655K

Jobs Supported

1,677

Program Breakdown

7(a) 118 (84%)
504 23 (16%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

12 loans in this industry

New Business Share

22.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
22
2021
15
2022
28
2023
13
2024
24
2025
36
2026
3

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

How profitable is Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 541715 level. California 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 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)?
12,929 business establishments. Together they employ 596,332 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)?
$147,945/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 46.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) employment?
California leads with 102,980 workers. Massachusetts (53,999) and North Carolina (32,238) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) receive?
Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) businesses received 141 SBA loans totaling $92 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $655K. These loans supported 1,677 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: Its Census employment total exceeds 94% of that same 801-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.

Benchmarking Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology)

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 541715 · 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.