Profit Margin
5.3%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Accommodation and Food Services ·NAICS 722
NAICS 722 · IRS SOI 2013 (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
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 August 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
Use Food Services and Drinking Places's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Food Services and Drinking Places 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 SOI 2013 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
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.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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%/7%
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
C Corporation SOI 2013
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 FY2020–2026SBA 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
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.
How this ranks: Food Services and Drinking Places reports a higher net margin than 63% of the 75 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 97% of that same 77-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.
- Administrative and Support Services 12,960,998
- Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 10,401,442
- Ambulatory Health Care Services 8,697,480
Benchmarking Food Services and Drinking Places
- Net margin: 5.3% vs sector. Browse Accommodation and Food Services
- 714,532 establishments, 12,644,827 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 42,910 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 722 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI 2013
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.