Employment
N/A
Total employees (Census CBP)
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation ·NAICS 71151
NAICS 71151 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers - Industry Benchmarks
723 SBA loans on record, $220M in volume, for NAICS 71151.
- 11.0%
- Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation sector margin
- N/A
- Workers employed
- N/A
- Avg payroll / employee
- $220M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 71151
Texas leads Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers 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)
- N/A
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- N/A
- Avg payroll / employee
- $220M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers
Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers sits inside Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation, a sector that runs a 11.0% net margin overall.
38,677 establishments employ N/A workers. Texas leads employment, followed by Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Avg Payroll / Employee
N/A
Annual compensation
Establishments
38,677
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
establishment count increased by 613. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $10.3B
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers NAICS 711510 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Texas | 2,751 |
| Illinois | 1,509 |
| Pennsylvania | 1,385 |
| Tennessee | 1,323 |
| Massachusetts | 879 |
| Oregon | 615 |
| Connecticut | 363 |
| District of Columbia | 251 |
| Alabama | 237 |
| Arkansas | 206 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
723
Total Loan Volume
$220M
Avg Loan Size
$305K
Jobs Supported
2,739
Program Breakdown
7(a) 626 (87%)
504 97 (13%)
Top SBA Lender
Wells Fargo Bank National Association
62 loans in this industry
New Business Share
19.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 68
2021 69
2022 92
2023 126
2024 176
2025 165
2026 27
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 71151 level. Texas 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 Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers?
38,677 business establishments.
What is the average payroll per employee in Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers?
Average payroll data for Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers is not available in the current Census CBP dataset.
Which states have the most Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers employment?
Texas leads with 2,751 workers. Illinois (1,509) and Pennsylvania (1,385) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers receive?
Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers businesses received 723 SBA loans totaling $220 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $305K. These loans supported 2,739 jobs at origination. Most lending (87%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Benchmarking Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
- 38,677 establishments, N/A workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 723 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 71151 · 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.