Interactive tool · IRS SOI 2023
Profit Margin Percentile Lookup
Free tool to see where your business profit margin ranks among 1,000+ U.S. industries, by NAICS sector or industry. Data from IRS Statistics of Income.
- 79
- Industries ranked
- 5.1%
- Median margin
Industry distribution snapshot
- 10th pct
- 2.0%
- 25th pct
- 3.1%
- Median
- 5.1%
- 75th pct
- 7.8%
- 90th pct
- 13.7%
79 industries ranked from IRS SOI Business Tax Statistics. Distribution is across NAICS-aggregated industries, individual businesses vary significantly within each industry.
How to interpret your percentile
- Below 25th percentile - Your margin is lower than 75% of ranked industries. Common in capital-intensive sectors (manufacturing, retail, transportation) where industry norms are 3-7%.
- 25th–75th percentile - Within the typical range. Most service, construction, and trade businesses fall here.
- Above 75th percentile - High-margin territory. Common in software, financial services, professional services with low cost of goods sold.
- Above 90th percentile - Top decile. Software, regulated services, IP-licensing-heavy businesses.
Caveats
Industry-level percentiles don't tell the full story. Your margin is also a function of company stage (startups burn cash), geography (regional cost differences), scale (small businesses often have lower margins than incumbents), and accounting method (cash vs accrual changes timing). Use this as a starting point, for a full analysis, consult a CPA familiar with your sector.
Source & methodology
Margin data from IRS Statistics of Income, Business Tax Statistics. Profit margin = pre-tax net income ÷ total receipts, computed from tax returns aggregated by NAICS industry code. Percentile cutoffs computed across all PlainBizBench-ranked industries.
Where your percentile points next
A percentile is a starting point, pair it with the specific industries that share your range.
- See the actual industries at every margin level. Industry rankings
- Find your exact NAICS industry for a closer comparison. Browse industries
Percentiles are computed across NAICS-aggregated industries, individual businesses vary widely within each industry, and margin also depends on stage, geography, scale, and accounting method.
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This tool computes percentile ranks from every industry's live profit-margin data, then runs the lookup in your browser. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.