Health Care and Social Assistance ·NAICS 624

NAICS 624 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Social Assistance - Industry Benchmarks

$33,470/yr average annual pay, with 8,664 SBA loans on record for NAICS 624.

9.6%
Net margin
3.7M
Workers employed
$33,470/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$6.7B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 624

Social Assistance runs a 9.6% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 199K establishments employing 3.7M workers.

9.6%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
3.7M
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$33,470/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$6.7B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Social Assistance

Social Assistance sits inside Health Care and Social Assistance at a 9.6% net margin (in line with the national median), $139.4B in aggregate receipts across 891,763 returns, averaging $156.3M per establishment.

199,242 establishments employ 3,742,670 workers (18.8/location) at $33,470/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by California and Texas.

Profit Margin

9.6%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$139.4B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$13.4B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

3,742,670

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$33,470/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

199,242

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 321,228; establishment count increased by 3,962. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

Where each dollar of Social Assistance revenue goes

Workforce scale

Social Assistance margin vs national reference points

Social Assistance net margin 32.1%
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
70,108 returns 8%

Margin: 3.4% · Receipts: $114.3B

Sole Proprietorship
821,655 returns 92%

Margin: 38.1% · Receipts: $25.1B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
891,763
Avg Receipts per Business
$156.3M
Annual Payroll (Total)
$125.3B
Avg Employees per Establishment
18.8

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Child Day Care Services

NAICS 6244

 N/A
Community Food and Housing, and Emergency and Other Relief Services

NAICS 6242

 N/A
Individual and Family Services

NAICS 6241

 N/A
Vocational Rehabilitation Services

NAICS 6243

 N/A

Top States by Employment

State Employment
New York 456,801
California 388,602
Texas 289,565
Pennsylvania 238,056
Illinois 184,338
Florida 144,522
Ohio 126,140
New Jersey 104,565
Massachusetts 102,064
Minnesota 101,619

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

8,664

Total Loan Volume

$6.7B

Avg Loan Size

$768K

Jobs Supported

159,364

Program Breakdown

7(a) 7,083 (82%)
504 1,581 (18%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

561 loans in this industry

New Business Share

37.1% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
980
2021
1,289
2022
1,203
2023
1,375
2024
1,682
2025
1,855
2026
280

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Social Assistance?
$139.4B in total annual receipts across all Social Assistance businesses. Average per business: $156.3M.
How profitable is Social Assistance?
9.6% net profit margin, in line with the national median.
How many businesses are in Social Assistance?
199,242 business establishments. Together they employ 3,742,670 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Social Assistance?
$33,470/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 18.8 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Social Assistance employment?
New York leads with 456,801 workers. California (388,602) and Texas (289,565) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Social Assistance receive?
Social Assistance businesses received 8,664 SBA loans totaling $6.7 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $768K. These loans supported 159,364 jobs at origination. Most lending (82%) 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.

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.

Benchmarking Social Assistance

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 624 · 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.