Amusement and Theme Park Revenue Benchmark

Average Amusement and Theme Park Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every amusement and theme park with paid employees, from a small family park with a dozen rides to a major destination, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of parks gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$34,051,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $19.2 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 563 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $34,051,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Amusement and Theme Parks, NAICS 713110. The category covers amusement and theme parks operating rides, games and attractions on their own grounds. Arcades, water parks that are part of a larger resort and traveling carnivals are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 7131: 713120 Amusement Arcades. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Varies by cohort

Amusement parks and arcades, NAICS 7131, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 28.6 to 48.1 percent. This benchmark covers Amusement parks and arcades, NAICS 7131, as a whole, and this category accounts for 563 of the 4,317 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Amusement and Theme Parks, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 26.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a modest share for a business that employs hundreds per park, because ride operators, food service and guest staff are largely seasonal and because rides and grounds absorb much of the rest.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes rides, maintenance, insurance, energy and the food and merchandise sold in the park, which together carry most of what a park spends.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Amusement and Theme Parks, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 300.6 people, and the industry averaged 1.2 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount reflects large seasonal crews of ride operators, food service and guest services staff averaged over the year.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

Explore More on BusinessNES

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Amusement and Theme Park: what a category of a few hundred parks with very different scales looks like on average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• Regional park or destination? A regional park with a summer season and a destination park operating year-round with hotels attached share this category, and the destinations pull the average far above a family park. The figure describes the category as a whole, not a typical park.
• How long is the season? Many parks open for a summer plus weekends in spring and fall, while warm-climate and indoor parks run year-round. Operating days per year decide what a park can earn from its fixed investment.
• Admission or in-park spending? Ticket prices set the gate, but food, games, merchandise and premium experiences decide spending per visitor, and season passes trade lower prices for repeat visits. The mix behind a park's receipts varies with its market.
• What does a ride cost to own? Rides are expensive to buy, inspect, insure and maintain, and a park is under pressure to keep adding attractions to draw repeat visitors. Capital per park is a defining cost that no receipts figure shows.
• How does weather land? Rain and heat cut attendance on the days a park depends on, and a wet summer can spoil a year. The census year reflects one season's weather and one calendar of events.
• Who works the park? Seasonal staff, often young and hired for a few months, must be recruited, trained and sometimes housed each year. Labor availability and wage rules in a park's region shape its payroll share more than ticket prices do.