An asset turnover only means something next to the figures of similar businesses. This table shows, for each industry, the asset turnover of the typical company and the range that the middle half of companies fall in. Every figure is calculated from the financial statements that US-listed companies file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, so you can check how it was measured.
To place your own figure, enter it in the asset turnover calculator and choose your industry under the result.
Median asset turnover for each industry
| Middle half 25th–75th percentile | Range chart | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All industries | 0.58 | 0.26–1.00 | 3,314 | |
| Auto dealers and gas stations | 1.56 | 0.95–2.05 | 23 | |
| Online and specialty retail | 1.55 | 1.16–2.63 | 64 | |
| Apparel and footwear retail | 1.45 | 1.31–1.62 | 23 | |
| General merchandise and home retail | 1.39 | 1.04–1.73 | 31 | |
| Wholesale distribution | 1.33 | 0.78–2.08 | 95 | |
| Construction | 1.18 | 0.92–1.65 | 50 | |
| Apparel, textiles and footwear | 1.15 | 0.97–1.32 | 35 | |
| Restaurants | 1.02 | 0.68–1.40 | 47 | |
| Building materials and metals | 0.90 | 0.76–1.16 | 41 | |
| Other manufacturing | 0.90 | 0.61–1.25 | 33 | |
| Paper, wood and furniture | 0.88 | 0.75–1.04 | 39 | |
| Motor vehicles and transport equipment | 0.88 | 0.51–1.30 | 76 | |
| Engineering, research and consulting | 0.86 | 0.51–1.18 | 54 | |
| Printing and publishing | 0.85 | 0.67–1.25 | 16 | |
| Education | 0.84 | 0.60–1.11 | 31 | |
| Fabricated metal products | 0.81 | 0.62–1.06 | 48 | |
| Healthcare services | 0.80 | 0.53–1.18 | 72 | |
| Personal and repair services | 0.74 | 0.38–1.29 | 23 | |
| Food, beverage and tobacco | 0.73 | 0.52–1.48 | 78 | |
| Airlines and air freight | 0.71 | 0.56–0.86 | 19 | |
| Industrial machinery | 0.70 | 0.52–0.95 | 110 | |
| Business services | 0.69 | 0.39–1.20 | 157 | |
| Oil and gas services | 0.69 | 0.35–1.04 | 28 | |
| Computers and hardware | 0.67 | 0.51–1.06 | 49 | |
| Agriculture | 0.66 | 0.37–1.12 | 16 | |
| Electrical and communications equipment | 0.65 | 0.35–1.01 | 110 | |
| Chemicals and personal care | 0.63 | 0.40–0.89 | 95 | |
| Medical devices and supplies | 0.58 | 0.31–0.89 | 163 | |
| Software and IT services | 0.58 | 0.38–0.82 | 368 | |
| Semiconductors and electronic components | 0.55 | 0.38–0.78 | 120 | |
| Aerospace and defense | 0.52 | 0.26–0.84 | 44 | |
| Scientific and measuring instruments | 0.51 | 0.34–0.76 | 66 | |
| Hotels, entertainment and leisure | 0.50 | 0.35–0.70 | 78 | |
| Telecommunications and media distribution | 0.42 | 0.30–0.74 | 64 | |
| Transportation and logistics | 0.42 | 0.24–1.00 | 103 | |
| Mining | 0.37 | 0.05–0.60 | 40 | |
| Oil and gas production | 0.34 | 0.25–0.44 | 68 | |
| Utilities and waste services | 0.22 | 0.17–0.37 | 103 | |
| Pharmaceuticals and biotech | 0.16 | 0.02–0.50 | 383 | |
| Real estate and REITs | 0.14 | 0.09–0.27 | 214 |
The median is the middle company. Half of the companies in each industry fall in the middle-half range. Industries with fewer than 15 companies are counted in "All industries" but not shown on their own. Download the table for every year as CSV (free to reuse with credit, CC BY 4.0).
Reading the table
- The median is the middle company: half the companies in the industry have a higher asset turnover and half a lower one. It is less affected by a few unusual companies than an average would be.
- The middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile. A quarter of companies sit below it and a quarter above it.
- A figure outside the middle half is not wrong. It is a reason to ask why the business differs from most of its industry.
Asset turnover is high for businesses that sell a lot relative to what they own, such as retailers and distributors, and low for businesses that need large amounts of property, equipment or other assets to produce their revenue, such as utilities and real estate companies.
The guide to why financial ratios vary by industry explains these differences in more detail.
How the median has changed
| Year | Median | Middle half | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 0.57 | 0.24–1.01 | 2,883 |
| 2022 | 0.57 | 0.24–1.01 | 3,030 |
| 2023 | 0.58 | 0.26–1.01 | 3,186 |
| 2024 | 0.58 | 0.25–1.01 | 3,332 |
| 2025 | 0.58 | 0.26–1.00 | 3,314 |
How the figures are measured
- Source: company filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, read through the SEC's free XBRL data API. SEC data is in the public domain.
- Figures: Revenue (
us-gaap:Revenues, or elseus-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, or elseus-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax, or elseus-gaap:SalesRevenueNet); Total assets (us-gaap:Assets), as each company tagged them in its filing. - Calculation: the asset turnover is calculated for each company with the same formula as the calculator on this site, then the companies are ranked.
- Period: Income statements for each company's financial year closest to calendar 2025, with balance sheets at the end of 2024 and 2025 averaged. For a company whose financial year ends at another time, a balance sheet near 31 December is usually a quarterly one.
- Companies: Companies listed on Nasdaq, NYSE or Cboe when the data was built, reporting under US GAAP. Blank-check companies (SPACs) are left out. Banks, insurers and brokers are left out: their revenue, costs and borrowing work differently from other businesses.
- Industries: each company's SIC code, as recorded by the SEC, grouped into plain-language industries. The SIC codes in each group are listed in the CSV download.
- Limits: these are public companies, which are larger than most businesses. The list is today's listed companies, so earlier years leave out companies that have since delisted. Companies tag figures themselves, and some tag them inconsistently; medians and quartiles are used because one odd figure barely moves them.
Built on 19 October 2026 from SEC data for 2025 and the four years before.
Using these figures for a smaller business
Listed companies are larger than most businesses and often have easier access to credit, so a small business in the same industry can have a different asset turnover for good reasons. Use the industry range as a rough reference, and compare most closely with your own earlier periods and with businesses of a similar size and model. Multiplied by net profit margin, asset turnover gives return on assets; DuPont analysis shows the full breakdown. Inventory turnover looks at one asset on its own.