Employment
127,604
Total employees (Census CBP)
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation ·NAICS 7111
NAICS 7111 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Performing Arts Companies - Industry Benchmarks
$45,637/yr average annual pay, with 490 SBA loans on record for NAICS 7111.
- 11.0%
- Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector margin
- 128K
- Workers employed
- $45,637/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $169M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 7111
New York leads Performing Arts Companies activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector runs a 11.0% net margin.
- 11.0%
- Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 128K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $45,637/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $169M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Performing Arts Companies
Performing Arts Companies sits inside Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, a sector that runs a 11.0% net margin overall.
10,511 establishments employ 127,604 workers (12.1/location) at $45,637/yr average annual pay. New York leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$45,637/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
10,511
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 10,282; establishment count increased by 251. 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)
- $5.8B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 12.1
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Dance Companies NAICS 71112 | N/A |
| Musical Groups and Artists NAICS 71113 | N/A |
| Other Performing Arts Companies NAICS 71119 | N/A |
| Theater Companies and Dinner Theaters NAICS 71111 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| New York | 21,647 |
| California | 17,372 |
| Florida | 7,597 |
| Texas | 6,217 |
| Illinois | 5,730 |
| Tennessee | 5,207 |
| Pennsylvania | 4,409 |
| Washington | 3,693 |
| Ohio | 3,311 |
| Missouri | 3,174 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
490
Total Loan Volume
$169M
Avg Loan Size
$345K
Jobs Supported
4,004
Program Breakdown
7(a) 431 (88%)
504 59 (12%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
33 loans in this industry
New Business Share
27.3% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 30
2021 35
2022 60
2023 84
2024 121
2025 147
2026 13
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Performing Arts Companies?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 7111 level. New York leads this industry nationally. The broader Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector runs a 11.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Performing Arts Companies?
10,511 business establishments. Together they employ 127,604 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Performing Arts Companies?
$45,637/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 12.1 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Performing Arts Companies employment?
New York leads with 21,647 workers. California (17,372) and Florida (7,597) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Performing Arts Companies receive?
Performing Arts Companies businesses received 490 SBA loans totaling $169 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $345K. These loans supported 4,004 jobs at origination. Most lending (88%) 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 39% 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 workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Performing Arts Companies
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
- 10,511 establishments, 127,604 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 490 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 7111 · 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.