Diagnostic Imaging Center Revenue Benchmark

Average Diagnostic Imaging Center Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every freestanding diagnostic imaging center with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of centers gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$3,599,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $25 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 6,948 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $3,599,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Diagnostic Imaging Centers, NAICS 621512. The category covers freestanding diagnostic imaging centers offering MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound and similar services. Imaging performed inside hospitals and physician offices is counted with those establishments, and medical laboratories are a separate category. Classified separately in group 6215: 621511 Medical Laboratories. 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 Industry group

Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories, NAICS 6215, 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 55.6 to 63.1 percent. This benchmark covers Medical and Diagnostic Laboratories, NAICS 6215, as a whole, and this category accounts for 6,948 of the 20,013 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, Diagnostic Imaging Centers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 30.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a substantial share covering technologists, radiologists on staff, scheduling and billing teams, though equipment leases and depreciation take a large part of what remains.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes the cost of scanners, service contracts, contrast agents and facility build-out, which dominate the cost structure of an imaging center.

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, Diagnostic Imaging Centers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 15.7 people, and the industry counted 1.5 employer establishments per firm. A center of that size staffs several modalities with technologists, front office and billing staff, and the establishments per firm figure shows that multi-site imaging companies and hospital-affiliated networks are common alongside single independent centers.

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.

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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

Diagnostic Imaging Center: what scan volume and equipment do to a revenue average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• Which modalities does the center run? An MRI-focused center and a center offering X-ray and ultrasound have very different revenue per scan and capital needs, and the census does not separate them. The modality mix decides both the revenue and the equipment burden behind this figure.
• How many scans does each machine perform? A scanner that runs long hours near capacity earns far more than one used a few hours a day, and the equipment costs roughly the same either way. Utilization per machine is the central operating number and is invisible in an annual total.
• Who reads the images? Radiologists may be employed, contracted or teleradiology groups, and whether the center bills the reading or only the technical component changes revenue substantially. Two centers with similar scan counts can report very different receipts.
• What is the referral base? Imaging centers depend on referring physicians, and rules on self-referral, insurer networks and prior authorization shape which patients arrive. A change in a large referrer's habits can move volume more than any marketing.
• How are reimbursement rates moving? Payment for imaging has been reduced repeatedly by Medicare and commercial payers over the years, and site-of-service rules affect freestanding centers differently from hospital departments. A single census year captures one point on that path.
• What does the equipment cycle cost? High-end imaging systems can require substantial capital and service contracts, while costs and replacement cycles vary widely by modality, and financing them is often the heaviest commitment a center makes. That capital cycle is the reason revenue alone cannot describe an imaging business.