Profit Margin
11.0%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation ·NAICS 71
NAICS 71 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation - Industry Benchmarks
$47,770/yr average annual pay, with 13,914 SBA loans on record for NAICS 71.
- 11.0%
- Net margin
- 2.5M
- Workers employed
- $47,770/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $7.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 71
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation runs a 11.0% pre-tax net margin - in line with the national median - across 166K establishments employing 2.5M workers.
- 11.0%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 2.5M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $47,770/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $7.9B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 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 Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sits inside Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation at a 11.0% net margin (in line with the national median), $359.6B in aggregate receipts across 2,013,840 returns, averaging $178.6M per establishment.
166,356 establishments employ 2,491,408 workers (15.0/location) at $47,770/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Florida and Texas.
Total Receipts
$359.6B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$39.5B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
2,491,408
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$47,770/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
166,356
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 173,051; establishment count increased by 3,396. 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 Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation revenue goes
Workforce scale
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation margin vs national reference points
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation net margin 36.6%
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
125,763 returns 6%
Margin: 3.8% · Receipts: $123.7B
Partnership
73,150 returns 4%
Margin: 13.8% · Receipts: $127.3B
S Corporation
8,189 returns 0%
Margin: 5.1% · Receipts: $44.6B
Sole Proprietorship
1,806,738 returns 90%
Margin: 23.4% · Receipts: $64.0B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 2,013,840
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $178.6M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $119.0B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 15.0
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Amusement, Gambling, and Recreation Industries NAICS 713 | 2.6% |
| Museums, Historical Sites, and Similar Institutions NAICS 712 | N/A |
| Performing Arts, Spectator Sports, and Related Industries NAICS 711 | 15.7% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 355,465 |
| Florida | 240,581 |
| Texas | 172,135 |
| New York | 166,968 |
| Pennsylvania | 95,456 |
| Illinois | 88,043 |
| Ohio | 82,294 |
| North Carolina | 71,277 |
| New Jersey | 68,435 |
| Washington | 63,910 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
13,914
Total Loan Volume
$7.9B
Avg Loan Size
$565K
Jobs Supported
155,910
Program Breakdown
7(a) 12,453 (89%)
504 1,461 (11%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
2,087 loans in this industry
New Business Share
55.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 1,533
2021 1,570
2022 1,817
2023 2,336
2024 2,758
2025 3,367
2026 533
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation?
$359.6B in total annual receipts across all Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation businesses. Average per business: $178.6M.
How profitable is Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation?
11.0% net profit margin, in line with the national median.
How many businesses are in Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation?
166,356 business establishments. Together they employ 2,491,408 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation?
$47,770/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 15.0 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation employment?
California leads with 355,465 workers. Florida (240,581) and Texas (172,135) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation receive?
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation businesses received 13,914 SBA loans totaling $7.9 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $565K. These loans supported 155,910 jobs at origination. Most lending (89%) 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: Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation reports a higher net margin than 63% of the 19 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 21% 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.
- Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 2,391,886
- Information 3,809,059
- Management of Companies and Enterprises 3,855,720
Benchmarking Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
- Net margin: 11.0% vs sector. Browse Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
- 166,356 establishments, 2,491,408 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 13,914 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 71 · 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.