A return on assets only means something next to the figures of similar businesses. This table shows, for each industry, the return on assets 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 return on assets calculator and choose your industry under the result.
Median return on assets for each industry
| Middle half 25th–75th percentile | Range chart | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All industries | 0.6% | −16.6% to 5.0% | 4,344 | |
| General merchandise and home retail | 6.5% | 3.5%–9.5% | 31 | |
| Construction | 5.5% | 0.6%–9.4% | 50 | |
| Industrial machinery | 4.4% | −1.0% to 8.2% | 112 | |
| Building materials and metals | 4.3% | −3.2% to 7.6% | 45 | |
| Education | 3.6% | −19.1% to 8.2% | 32 | |
| Auto dealers and gas stations | 3.3% | −2.9% to 6.5% | 24 | |
| Fabricated metal products | 3.3% | −1.5% to 11.2% | 50 | |
| Insurance | 3.2% | 0.6%–6.2% | 128 | |
| Food, beverage and tobacco | 2.9% | −8.8% to 8.8% | 80 | |
| Printing and publishing | 2.8% | 0.7%–8.5% | 17 | |
| Transportation and logistics | 2.8% | −0.5% to 7.7% | 108 | |
| Apparel, textiles and footwear | 2.7% | 0.0%–8.5% | 35 | |
| Utilities and waste services | 2.7% | 0.5%–4.3% | 113 | |
| Wholesale distribution | 2.4% | −6.2% to 5.9% | 96 | |
| Paper, wood and furniture | 2.3% | −5.6% to 7.2% | 39 | |
| Oil and gas production | 2.2% | −3.3% to 6.7% | 69 | |
| Restaurants | 2.2% | −3.6% to 5.4% | 47 | |
| Apparel and footwear retail | 2.1% | −1.5% to 10.0% | 23 | |
| Brokers and asset managers | 1.6% | −6.3% to 9.7% | 141 | |
| Personal and repair services | 1.5% | −3.1% to 5.1% | 24 | |
| Oil and gas services | 1.4% | −2.1% to 4.5% | 28 | |
| Engineering, research and consulting | 1.4% | −21.2% to 8.2% | 55 | |
| Business services | 1.3% | −6.4% to 6.3% | 158 | |
| Computers and hardware | 1.3% | −8.9% to 6.3% | 49 | |
| Real estate and REITs | 1.3% | −1.3% to 3.5% | 248 | |
| Online and specialty retail | 1.2% | −9.6% to 7.0% | 66 | |
| Motor vehicles and transport equipment | 1.1% | −21.8% to 4.7% | 78 | |
| Banks and lenders | 1.0% | 0.2%–1.4% | 419 | |
| Airlines and air freight | 0.5% | −2.8% to 5.9% | 19 | |
| Hotels, entertainment and leisure | 0.5% | −5.8% to 5.0% | 79 | |
| Semiconductors and electronic components | 0.5% | −9.4% to 6.6% | 120 | |
| Aerospace and defense | 0.4% | −16.0% to 5.9% | 46 | |
| Scientific and measuring instruments | 0.1% | −22.5% to 7.7% | 68 | |
| Agriculture | 0.0% | −41.4% to 2.6% | 17 | |
| Software and IT services | −0.1% | −15.5% to 7.1% | 380 | |
| Telecommunications and media distribution | −0.4% | −9.3% to 3.9% | 65 | |
| Chemicals and personal care | −1.3% | −12.6% to 5.6% | 97 | |
| Healthcare services | −1.4% | −15.9% to 6.1% | 75 | |
| Other manufacturing | −2.5% | −7.1% to 6.0% | 33 | |
| Electrical and communications equipment | −5.4% | −31.6% to 4.7% | 114 | |
| Mining | −7.0% | −29.1% to 3.3% | 59 | |
| Medical devices and supplies | −20.1% | −71.4% to 2.7% | 181 | |
| Pharmaceuticals and biotech | −39.4% | −74.1% to −8.7% | 589 |
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 return on assets 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.
Businesses that need large amounts of property, equipment, loans or other assets to earn their revenue tend to show a lower ROA than businesses that need few assets, even when both are profitable. Industries with many young companies that are still losing money, drug developers among them, have medians below zero. Banks and insurers are included in this table.
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 | 1.3% | −11.7% to 6.6% | 3,769 |
| 2022 | 0.9% | −16.7% to 5.9% | 3,940 |
| 2023 | 0.7% | −14.8% to 5.5% | 4,117 |
| 2024 | 0.6% | −16.7% to 5.2% | 4,331 |
| 2025 | 0.6% | −16.6% to 5.0% | 4,344 |
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: Net income (
us-gaap:NetIncomeLoss, or elseus-gaap:NetIncomeLossAvailableToCommonStockholdersBasic, or elseus-gaap:ProfitLoss); Total assets (us-gaap:Assets), as each company tagged them in its filing. - Calculation: the return on assets 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. Companies in every industry are included, banks and insurers too.
- 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 return on assets 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. Return on equity measures profit against shareholders’ money only, so borrowing affects it. Asset turnover shows how much revenue the assets produce, which is one half of ROA. ROE vs ROA compares the two.