How many people are employed in District of Columbia?

According to Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023 data, District of Columbia has 520,480 employees across 22,448 business establishments in 428 tracked industries.

What is the average payroll in District of Columbia?

Average payroll per employee varies widely by industry in District of Columbia. The highest-paying tracked industry is Portfolio Management at $324,814/yr. All data is from Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023.

How many businesses operate in District of Columbia?

District of Columbia has 22,448 business establishments across 428 industries tracked by the Census Bureau County Business Patterns program. Each establishment represents a single physical location or operating unit.

State overview · DC · Census CBP 2023

District of Columbia Industry Benchmarks

Name: District of Columbia Industry Employment and Payroll Benchmarks
Creator: PlainBizBench
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Employment, establishments, and payroll for 428 industries in District of Columbia. Drill into any industry for a District of Columbia-specific view, then cross-reference the national page for margins.

Compiled by PlainBizBench

520K
Workers: 22K
Establishments: 428
Industries tracked

Data updated August 2026

The verdict · District of Columbia

District of Columbia employs 520,480 workers across 428 tracked industries, led by Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (37,293 workers).

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services anchors District of Columbia; top-three cumulative share is 52%. Margins stay on national industry pages.

District of Columbia sector employment mix

Share of private-sector employment by NAICS-2 sector (Census CBP 2023). Tile area = workers.

District of Columbia private employment by sector · Census CBP 2023

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services is the clear anchor in District of Columbia (23% of 520,480 private-sector workers (about the 18th percentile of states by employment)), but sibling sectors still take meaningful shares. Read the treemap as an anchor-plus-breadth economy rather than a one-sector state.

#1 · NAICS 54

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

118,310 · 23%

#2 · NAICS 81

Other Services (except Public Administration)

79,279 · 15%

#3 · NAICS 62

Health Care and Social Assistance

71,565 · 14%

Anchor economy · Herfindahl 0.135 (moderate) · top-three 52% of District of Columbia private payroll.

Profit margins are national (IRS SOI); open any industry row below, then the matching national industry page for profitability.

Census CBP firm roll

County Business Patterns DC ANCHORED · CBP

#42/51 · 520,480 workers · 22,448 firms

EMP 520,480
EST 22,448
RANK #42/51
PCT 18th pct
LEAD Professional, Scient…
SHARE 23% lead
BAND anchored
DENS 23.2 /firm
BOOK 428 NAICS
PHOTO New Hampshire

Nearest employment-scale peer: New Hampshire (533,259 workers)

According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, District of Columbia ranks #42 of 51 states and territories by total private-sector employment (level-2 sector totals, the same non-double-counted aggregate shown above). Margins stay on national industry pages (IRS SOI). Read with this state → · Lead 6-digit industry →

Census CBP level-2 private employment among this state and nearest nationwide peers

Top Industries by Employment

Industry	Employment	Establishments	Annual Payroll	Avg Payroll/Emp
Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools NAICS 611310	37,293	47	$2.2B	$58,414/yr
Offices of Lawyers NAICS 541110	31,104	1,197	$7.3B	$234,157/yr
Full-Service Restaurants NAICS 722511	29,842	974	$1.1B	$38,070/yr
General Medical and Surgical Hospitals NAICS 622110	25,785	12	$2.2B	$85,564/yr
Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services NAICS 541611	23,247	925	$3.5B	$149,731/yr
Elementary and Secondary Schools NAICS 611110	13,476	159	$984.6M	$73,065/yr
Limited-Service Restaurants NAICS 722513	12,775	851	$361.4M	$28,292/yr
Business Associations NAICS 813910	12,496	497	$2.3B	$184,950/yr
Hotels (except Casino Hotels) and Motels NAICS 721110	11,911	120	$863.0M	$72,456/yr
Professional Organizations NAICS 813920	10,482	310	$1.3B	$121,383/yr
Other Social Advocacy Organizations NAICS 813319	9,848	412	$1.1B	$108,567/yr
Human Rights Organizations NAICS 813311	9,264	311	$928.6M	$100,240/yr
Temporary Help Services NAICS 561320	7,853	144	$384.6M	$48,971/yr
Food Service Contractors NAICS 722310	7,210	341	$227.4M	$31,545/yr
Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations NAICS 813930	7,117	113	$801.0M	$112,553/yr
Public Relations Agencies NAICS 541820	6,904	493	$1.2B	$178,510/yr
Custom Computer Programming Services NAICS 541511	6,841	352	$845.3M	$123,564/yr
Engineering Services NAICS 541330	6,186	248	$743.5M	$120,192/yr
Home Health Care Services NAICS 621610	5,697	71	$259.6M	$45,572/yr
Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities NAICS 541720	5,610	132	$579.1M	$103,220/yr

Scale peers for District of Columbia's anchor economy

Nearest other states by Census CBP level-2 private employment (520,480 in District of Columbia), excluding DC.

New Hampshire 533,259 West Virginia 537,890 Maine 545,965 Hawaii 437,405 Delaware 435,085 New Mexico 628,423 Montana 401,056 Rhode Island 394,740

Disclaimer: District of Columbia (DC) figures on this page are Census CBP employment and payroll counts for informational registry use only, not financial, tax, or business advice. Consult a qualified accountant for decisions about District of Columbia businesses.

Source: Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023 · DC

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets for District of Columbia (DC). See our methodology.

Verify with U.S. Census Bureau → · Verify with IRS SOI →