Employment
11,406,584
Total employees (Census CBP)
Accommodation and Food Services ·NAICS 72251
NAICS 72251 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Restaurants and Other Eating Places - Industry Benchmarks
$24,280/yr average annual pay, with 37,167 SBA loans on record for NAICS 72251.
- 5.6%
- Accommodation and Food Services sector margin
- 11.4M
- Workers employed
- $24,280/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $19.3B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 72251
California leads Restaurants and Other Eating Places activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Accommodation and Food Services sector runs a 5.6% net margin.
- 5.6%
- Accommodation and Food Services sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 11.4M
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $24,280/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $19.3B
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Restaurants and Other Eating Places's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Restaurants and Other Eating 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 (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Restaurants and Other Eating Places
Restaurants and Other Eating Places sits inside Accommodation and Food Services, a sector that runs a 5.6% net margin overall.
618,476 establishments employ 11,406,584 workers (18.4/location) at $24,280/yr average annual pay. California leads employment, followed by Texas and Florida.
Restaurants and Other Eating Places sits in the 100th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$24,280/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
618,476
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 538,553; establishment count increased by 12,385. 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)Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $276.9B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 18.4
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Cafeterias, Grill Buffets, and Buffets NAICS 722514 | N/A |
| Full-Service Restaurants NAICS 722511 | N/A |
| Limited-Service Restaurants NAICS 722513 | N/A |
| Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars NAICS 722515 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| California | 1,404,974 |
| Texas | 1,126,293 |
| Florida | 798,469 |
| New York | 598,860 |
| Ohio | 424,932 |
| Illinois | 413,060 |
| Georgia | 395,597 |
| North Carolina | 395,007 |
| Pennsylvania | 364,990 |
| Michigan | 310,151 |
Showing top 10 of 51 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
37,167
Total Loan Volume
$19.3B
Avg Loan Size
$518K
Jobs Supported
706,419
Program Breakdown
7(a) 33,529 (90%)
504 3,638 (10%)
Top SBA Lender
The Huntington National Bank
4,061 loans in this industry
New Business Share
47.4% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 4,362
2021 4,965
2022 5,377
2023 6,323
2024 7,038
2025 8,020
2026 1,082
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Restaurants and Other Eating Places?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 72251 level. California leads this industry nationally. The broader Accommodation and Food Services sector runs a 5.6% net margin (IRS SOI 2013 C corp).
How many businesses are in Restaurants and Other Eating Places?
618,476 business establishments. Together they employ 11,406,584 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Restaurants and Other Eating Places?
$24,280/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 18.4 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Restaurants and Other Eating Places employment?
California leads with 1,404,974 workers. Texas (1,126,293) and Florida (798,469) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Restaurants and Other Eating Places receive?
Restaurants and Other Eating Places businesses received 37,167 SBA loans totaling $19.3 billion between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $518K. These loans supported 706,419 jobs at origination. Most lending (90%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Restaurants and Other Eating Places, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Restaurants and Other Eating Places ranks #1 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (11,406,584 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Accommodation and Food Services · 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 72251 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.