Accommodation and Food Services ·NAICS 722

NAICS 722 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Food Services and Drinking Places - Industry Benchmarks

$24,695/yr average annual pay, with 42,910 SBA loans on record for NAICS 722.

5.3%
Net margin
12.6M
Workers employed
$24,695/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$21.6B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 722

Food Services and Drinking Places runs a 5.3% pre-tax net margin - below the national median - across 715K establishments employing 12.6M workers.

5.3%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
12.6M
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$24,695/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$21.6B
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Food Services and Drinking Places

Food Services and Drinking Places sits inside Accommodation and Food Services at a 5.3% net margin (below the national median), $411.8B in aggregate receipts across 276,225 returns, averaging $1.5B per establishment.

714,532 establishments employ 12,644,827 workers (17.7/location) at $24,695/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.

Profit Margin

5.3%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$411.8B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$21.8B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

12,644,827

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$24,695/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

714,532

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 645,099; establishment count increased by 14,063. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

Where each dollar of Food Services and Drinking Places revenue goes

Workforce scale

Food Services and Drinking Places margin vs national reference points

Food Services and Drinking Places net margin 17.7%
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
276,225 returns 100%

Margin: 5.3% · Receipts: $411.8B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
276,225
Avg Receipts per Business
$1.5B
Annual Payroll (Total)
$312.3B
Avg Employees per Establishment
17.7

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Drinking Places (Alcoholic Beverages)

NAICS 7224

 N/A
Restaurants and Other Eating Places

NAICS 7225

 N/A
Special Food Services

NAICS 7223

 N/A

Top States by Employment

State Employment
California 1,529,684
Texas 1,231,785
Florida 873,724
New York 700,455
Illinois 479,781
Ohio 462,508
Georgia 429,868
North Carolina 428,439
Pennsylvania 424,382
Michigan 348,867

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

42,910

Total Loan Volume

$21.6B

Avg Loan Size

$503K

Jobs Supported

769,592

Program Breakdown

7(a) 38,697 (90%)
504 4,213 (10%)

Top SBA Lender

The Huntington National Bank

4,637 loans in this industry

New Business Share

46.9% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
5,066
2021
5,573
2022
6,205
2023
7,407
2024
8,240
2025
9,183
2026
1,236

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Food Services and Drinking Places?
$411.8B in total annual receipts across all Food Services and Drinking Places businesses. Average per business: $1.5B.
How profitable is Food Services and Drinking Places?
5.3% net profit margin, below the national median.
How many businesses are in Food Services and Drinking Places?
714,532 business establishments. Together they employ 12,644,827 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Food Services and Drinking Places?
$24,695/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 17.7 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Food Services and Drinking Places employment?
California leads with 1,529,684 workers. Texas (1,231,785) and Florida (873,724) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Food Services and Drinking Places receive?
Food Services and Drinking Places businesses received 42,910 SBA loans totaling $21.6 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $503K. These loans supported 769,592 jobs at origination. Most lending (90%) 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 Food Services and Drinking Places

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 722 · 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.