Profit Margin
6.7%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Accommodation and Food Services ·NAICS 72
NAICS 72 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Accommodation and Food Services - Industry Benchmarks
$26,914/yr average annual pay, with 51,290 SBA loans on record for NAICS 72.
- 6.7%
- Net margin
- 14.6M
- Workers employed
- $26,914/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $40.1B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 72
Accommodation and Food Services runs a 6.7% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 785K establishments employing 14.6M workers.
- 6.7%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 14.6M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $26,914/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $40.1B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Accommodation and Food Services's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Accommodation and Food Services 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 Accommodation and Food Services
Accommodation and Food Services sits inside Accommodation and Food Services at a 6.7% net margin (below the national median), $904.1B in aggregate receipts across 477,229 returns, averaging $1.9B per establishment.
784,882 establishments employ 14,608,170 workers (18.6/location) at $26,914/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Total Receipts
$904.1B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$60.4B
Pre-tax net income
Employment
14,608,170
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$26,914/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
784,882
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 814,692; establishment count increased by 13,026. 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 Accommodation and Food Services revenue goes
Workforce scale
Accommodation and Food Services margin vs national reference points
Accommodation and Food Services net margin 22.3%
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
309,204 returns 65%
Margin: 5.6% · Receipts: $521.5B
Partnership
166,792 returns 35%
Margin: 8.4% · Receipts: $356.4B
S Corporation
1,233 returns 0%
Margin: 5.5% · Receipts: $26.2B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 477,229
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $1.9B
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $393.2B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 18.6
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Accommodation NAICS 721 | 5.7% |
| Food Services and Drinking Places NAICS 722 | 5.3% |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 1,788,988 |
| Texas | 1,355,419 |
| Florida | 1,048,633 |
| New York | 794,079 |
| Illinois | 523,877 |
| Ohio | 496,313 |
| North Carolina | 477,208 |
| Georgia | 475,652 |
| Pennsylvania | 474,507 |
| Michigan | 394,668 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
51,290
Total Loan Volume
$40.1B
Avg Loan Size
$782K
Jobs Supported
858,157
Program Breakdown
7(a) 44,839 (87%)
504 6,451 (13%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
4,663 loans in this industry
New Business Share
45.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 6,324
2021 7,436
2022 7,620
2023 8,505
2024 9,435
2025 10,553
2026 1,417
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Accommodation and Food Services?
$904.1B in total annual receipts across all Accommodation and Food Services businesses. Average per business: $1.9B.
How profitable is Accommodation and Food Services?
6.7% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Accommodation and Food Services?
784,882 business establishments. Together they employ 14,608,170 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Accommodation and Food Services?
$26,914/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 18.6 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Accommodation and Food Services employment?
California leads with 1,788,988 workers. Texas (1,355,419) and Florida (1,048,633) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Accommodation and Food Services receive?
Accommodation and Food Services businesses received 51,290 SBA loans totaling $40.1 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $782K. These loans supported 858,157 jobs at origination. Most lending (87%) 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: Accommodation and Food Services reports a higher net margin than 37% of the 19 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 84% 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.
- Manufacturing 6.7%
- Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting 6.8%
- Construction 6.3%
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
- Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 13,454,862
- Retail Trade 16,046,207
- Manufacturing 12,335,234
Benchmarking Accommodation and Food Services
- Net margin: 6.7% vs sector. Browse Accommodation and Food Services
- 784,882 establishments, 14,608,170 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 51,290 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 72 · 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.