A return on equity only means something next to the figures of similar businesses. This table shows, for each industry, the return on equity 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 equity calculator and choose your industry under the result.
Median return on equity for each industry
| Middle half 25th–75th percentile | Range chart | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All industries | 3.3% | −27.8% to 13.5% | 3,933 | |
| General merchandise and home retail | 17.9% | 8.1%–33.3% | 29 | |
| Personal and repair services | 14.8% | 0.7%–21.1% | 15 | |
| Construction | 13.1% | 4.2%–19.5% | 46 | |
| Insurance | 11.9% | 6.8%–19.2% | 123 | |
| Auto dealers and gas stations | 11.3% | −26.8% to 17.1% | 21 | |
| Brokers and asset managers | 11.3% | −5.5% to 22.7% | 112 | |
| Industrial machinery | 9.6% | −1.3% to 17.3% | 108 | |
| Banks and lenders | 9.2% | 2.8%–12.3% | 404 | |
| Utilities and waste services | 8.9% | 0.8%–12.6% | 108 | |
| Restaurants | 8.6% | −6.8% to 16.7% | 33 | |
| Building materials and metals | 8.4% | −5.8% to 16.7% | 44 | |
| Fabricated metal products | 8.2% | −1.4% to 18.0% | 46 | |
| Apparel and footwear retail | 7.8% | −3.0% to 23.1% | 21 | |
| Transportation and logistics | 7.8% | −0.5% to 16.4% | 105 | |
| Education | 7.7% | −38.2% to 18.2% | 27 | |
| Paper, wood and furniture | 7.6% | −12.6% to 13.6% | 38 | |
| Wholesale distribution | 6.3% | −14.6% to 14.1% | 87 | |
| Food, beverage and tobacco | 5.9% | −17.4% to 16.7% | 72 | |
| Apparel, textiles and footwear | 5.7% | 0.0%–21.3% | 35 | |
| Business services | 5.1% | −13.3% to 15.8% | 140 | |
| Online and specialty retail | 4.8% | −26.4% to 18.8% | 55 | |
| Oil and gas production | 4.5% | −5.0% to 15.0% | 66 | |
| Engineering, research and consulting | 3.9% | −25.4% to 20.0% | 52 | |
| Real estate and REITs | 3.8% | −4.2% to 9.3% | 237 | |
| Oil and gas services | 3.5% | −2.0% to 10.6% | 26 | |
| Motor vehicles and transport equipment | 3.4% | −49.5% to 11.5% | 72 | |
| Computers and hardware | 2.6% | −12.5% to 14.4% | 43 | |
| Hotels, entertainment and leisure | 2.1% | −15.1% to 32.0% | 63 | |
| Semiconductors and electronic components | 1.6% | −11.1% to 15.1% | 114 | |
| Aerospace and defense | 1.3% | −31.5% to 11.9% | 43 | |
| Agriculture | 0.9% | −105.2% to 4.6% | 16 | |
| Scientific and measuring instruments | 0.4% | −18.0% to 14.6% | 65 | |
| Software and IT services | 0.0% | −32.7% to 15.6% | 331 | |
| Telecommunications and media distribution | 0.0% | −22.2% to 10.1% | 55 | |
| Other manufacturing | −2.0% | −20.4% to 15.6% | 29 | |
| Chemicals and personal care | −2.6% | −25.7% to 12.9% | 93 | |
| Healthcare services | −4.4% | −39.6% to 11.7% | 63 | |
| Electrical and communications equipment | −9.7% | −81.7% to 10.7% | 100 | |
| Mining | −10.6% | −38.8% to 8.7% | 56 | |
| Medical devices and supplies | −29.0% | −125.7% to 5.6% | 164 | |
| Pharmaceuticals and biotech | −53.5% | −123.6% to −14.5% | 512 |
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 equity 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.
ROE depends on how profitable a business is and on how much it borrows: debt lets a company run a larger business on the same equity, which raises ROE when profits are positive and deepens it when they are negative. Companies with very little equity, for example after large share buybacks, can show very high ROE. Companies with zero or negative equity are left out, because the ratio means nothing for them. Banks and insurers are included.
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 | 7.2% | −18.7% to 17.9% | 3,500 |
| 2022 | 4.8% | −28.2% to 16.2% | 3,693 |
| 2023 | 4.5% | −24.5% to 15.1% | 3,786 |
| 2024 | 3.8% | −26.5% to 13.7% | 3,907 |
| 2025 | 3.3% | −27.8% to 13.5% | 3,933 |
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); Shareholders' equity (us-gaap:StockholdersEquity, or elseus-gaap:PartnersCapital, or elseus-gaap:MembersEquity, or elseus-gaap:StockholdersEquityIncludingPortionAttributableToNoncontrollingInterest, or elseus-gaap:PartnersCapitalIncludingPortionAttributableToNoncontrollingInterest), as each company tagged them in its filing. - Calculation: the return on equity 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. Companies with zero or negative equity are left out.
- 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 equity 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 assets measures the same profit against everything the business owns, without the effect of borrowing. ROE vs ROA and DuPont analysis show how the two connect.