A net profit margin only means something next to the figures of similar businesses. This table shows, for each industry, the net 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 net profit margin calculator and choose your industry under the result.
Median net profit margin for each industry
| Middle half 25th–75th percentile | Range chart | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All industries | 1.5% | −16.8% to 10.0% | 3,232 | |
| Utilities and waste services | 11.4% | 4.0%–16.5% | 101 | |
| Oil and gas production | 7.5% | −5.4% to 18.6% | 61 | |
| Industrial machinery | 6.9% | −1.0% to 11.0% | 110 | |
| Real estate and REITs | 5.3% | −7.5% to 27.7% | 211 | |
| Transportation and logistics | 4.6% | −2.6% to 19.8% | 106 | |
| Fabricated metal products | 4.5% | −1.3% to 10.7% | 50 | |
| Construction | 3.6% | −7.0% to 6.9% | 57 | |
| Printing and publishing | 3.6% | 0.4%–10.9% | 17 | |
| General merchandise and home retail | 3.5% | 2.6%–7.2% | 32 | |
| Food, beverage and tobacco | 3.1% | −6.5% to 8.8% | 77 | |
| Oil and gas services | 2.3% | −3.0% to 7.2% | 28 | |
| Paper, wood and furniture | 2.3% | −10.0% to 7.0% | 40 | |
| Apparel, textiles and footwear | 2.2% | 0.0%–6.7% | 37 | |
| Auto dealers and gas stations | 2.2% | −1.5% to 3.8% | 23 | |
| Business services | 2.2% | −6.2% to 9.8% | 163 | |
| Building materials and metals | 2.2% | −2.2% to 8.9% | 43 | |
| Education | 1.8% | −22.4% to 11.7% | 37 | |
| Restaurants | 1.8% | −5.5% to 5.4% | 49 | |
| Aerospace and defense | 1.7% | −38.0% to 7.4% | 42 | |
| Computers and hardware | 1.7% | −13.9% to 10.2% | 48 | |
| Engineering, research and consulting | 1.7% | −50.9% to 7.6% | 59 | |
| Airlines and air freight | 1.6% | −2.7% to 7.7% | 19 | |
| Hotels, entertainment and leisure | 1.6% | −11.6% to 10.1% | 81 | |
| Motor vehicles and transport equipment | 1.5% | −17.8% to 5.6% | 73 | |
| Apparel and footwear retail | 1.4% | −0.9% to 7.5% | 25 | |
| Semiconductors and electronic components | 1.4% | −13.5% to 13.6% | 115 | |
| Wholesale distribution | 1.0% | −2.2% to 5.2% | 98 | |
| Personal and repair services | 0.8% | −8.5% to 6.9% | 26 | |
| Scientific and measuring instruments | 0.8% | −24.4% to 13.7% | 65 | |
| Agriculture | 0.4% | −58.4% to 2.2% | 17 | |
| Online and specialty retail | 0.4% | −5.2% to 5.0% | 69 | |
| Mining | 0.1% | −31.1% to 14.0% | 34 | |
| Software and IT services | 0.0% | −22.5% to 13.2% | 372 | |
| Healthcare services | −0.2% | −8.5% to 6.4% | 68 | |
| Chemicals and personal care | −1.5% | −21.1% to 7.5% | 93 | |
| Telecommunications and media distribution | −2.7% | −20.0% to 8.1% | 64 | |
| Other manufacturing | −3.6% | −10.9% to 5.6% | 34 | |
| Electrical and communications equipment | −4.3% | −64.6% to 5.5% | 109 | |
| Medical devices and supplies | −11.3% | −66.5% to 6.7% | 148 | |
| Pharmaceuticals and biotech | −33.0% | −373.9% to 5.1% | 294 |
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 net 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.
Net margin is affected by everything below operating profit too: interest, taxes and one-off gains or losses. That makes it move more from year to year than the margins above it. Industries with many young companies that are still losing money, drug developers among them, have medians below zero, and so many listed companies are in that position that the median across all industries is close to zero.
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 | 3.9% | −13.1% to 11.7% | 2,823 |
| 2022 | 2.7% | −17.2% to 10.9% | 3,008 |
| 2023 | 2.4% | −17.0% to 10.6% | 3,143 |
| 2024 | 1.6% | −17.6% to 10.2% | 3,208 |
| 2025 | 1.5% | −16.8% to 10.0% | 3,232 |
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); 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 net 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 net 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. To see where the profit goes, compare it with gross profit margin and operating profit margin. Return on assets relates the same profit to what the business owns instead of what it sells.