An operating profit margin only means something next to the figures of similar businesses. This table shows, for each industry, the operating profit margin 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 operating profit margin calculator and choose your industry under the result.
Median operating profit margin for each industry
| Middle half 25th–75th percentile | Range chart | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All industries | 2.6% | −20.5% to 12.7% | 2,997 | |
| Utilities and waste services | 20.2% | 11.2%–26.1% | 96 | |
| Real estate and REITs | 16.6% | 0.3%–35.9% | 124 | |
| Oil and gas production | 11.1% | −4.0% to 28.9% | 53 | |
| Industrial machinery | 10.7% | −2.0% to 15.2% | 104 | |
| Transportation and logistics | 8.9% | 0.4%–25.3% | 101 | |
| Fabricated metal products | 7.3% | −1.1% to 14.6% | 47 | |
| Printing and publishing | 6.6% | 2.5%–12.0% | 15 | |
| Aerospace and defense | 5.9% | −47.4% to 15.9% | 40 | |
| Building materials and metals | 5.5% | −1.5% to 12.8% | 35 | |
| Food, beverage and tobacco | 5.3% | −12.4% to 11.6% | 74 | |
| Paper, wood and furniture | 5.2% | −5.9% to 9.5% | 37 | |
| General merchandise and home retail | 5.1% | 3.8%–9.6% | 30 | |
| Hotels, entertainment and leisure | 5.0% | −13.5% to 16.2% | 73 | |
| Business services | 4.8% | −6.1% to 14.6% | 154 | |
| Restaurants | 4.3% | −2.1% to 10.1% | 47 | |
| Construction | 4.2% | −12.9% to 9.3% | 47 | |
| Auto dealers and gas stations | 3.9% | 1.0%–6.3% | 20 | |
| Apparel, textiles and footwear | 3.7% | 0.2%–8.2% | 37 | |
| Personal and repair services | 3.5% | −15.5% to 10.9% | 23 | |
| Oil and gas services | 2.8% | −0.4% to 11.8% | 27 | |
| Motor vehicles and transport equipment | 2.8% | −47.4% to 8.5% | 67 | |
| Apparel and footwear retail | 2.6% | −1.8% to 7.1% | 24 | |
| Engineering, research and consulting | 2.5% | −55.4% to 8.9% | 58 | |
| Wholesale distribution | 2.5% | −2.0% to 7.1% | 96 | |
| Semiconductors and electronic components | 2.4% | −16.8% to 13.6% | 115 | |
| Airlines and air freight | 2.1% | −4.0% to 7.1% | 19 | |
| Scientific and measuring instruments | 1.9% | −27.2% to 17.3% | 62 | |
| Healthcare services | 1.6% | −12.7% to 9.4% | 62 | |
| Chemicals and personal care | 1.5% | −18.8% to 12.8% | 81 | |
| Computers and hardware | 1.5% | −13.2% to 11.6% | 45 | |
| Mining | 1.3% | −109.7% to 17.6% | 33 | |
| Education | 1.2% | −25.2% to 10.0% | 37 | |
| Telecommunications and media distribution | 0.9% | −17.0% to 12.6% | 62 | |
| Online and specialty retail | 0.2% | −6.6% to 5.9% | 67 | |
| Other manufacturing | −0.6% | −5.7% to 7.1% | 34 | |
| Software and IT services | −1.9% | −30.4% to 10.1% | 370 | |
| Electrical and communications equipment | −5.5% | −60.7% to 5.8% | 104 | |
| Medical devices and supplies | −12.5% | −59.5% to 9.2% | 147 | |
| Pharmaceuticals and biotech | −78.8% | −521.0% to 4.0% | 284 |
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 operating profit margin 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.
Operating margin takes running costs off as well as the cost of sales, so it reflects both pricing and how heavily a business spends on staff, research, marketing and premises. Industries with many young companies still spending ahead of their revenue, drug developers among them, have medians below zero. The figure across all industries is low for the same reason: it counts every listed company, including many small ones that are not yet profitable.
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 | 5.3% | −16.7% to 15.0% | 2,602 |
| 2022 | 4.1% | −21.7% to 14.4% | 2,793 |
| 2023 | 4.0% | −19.8% to 13.8% | 2,935 |
| 2024 | 3.3% | −19.1% to 13.6% | 2,987 |
| 2025 | 2.6% | −20.5% to 12.7% | 2,997 |
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: Operating income (
us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss, or, for a company that reports none, the first of gross profit minusus-gaap:OperatingExpenses, revenue minusus-gaap:CostsAndExpensesand gross profit minusus-gaap:SellingGeneralAndAdministrativeExpensethat comes within 0.5% of its pretax income before the interest and other nonoperating items it reports); Revenue (us-gaap:Revenues, or elseus-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, or elseus-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax, or elseus-gaap:SalesRevenueNet), as each company tagged them in its filing. - Calculation: the operating profit margin 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. 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. Companies with less than $1 million of revenue are left out, since a tiny revenue figure makes the ratio meaningless.
- 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 20 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 operating profit margin 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. Read it with gross profit margin, which shows the margin before running costs, and EBITDA margin, which adds depreciation and amortization back. EBIT vs EBITDA explains the difference.