Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Optical Goods Store Revenue Benchmark
An optical goods store sells prescription eyeglasses, sunglasses and contact lenses, often with an optometrist on site or next door, and earns on the frames, lenses and coatings it fits rather than on the eye exam itself. Lab work, insurance plans and the frame brands a store can carry shape a business that sits between health care and fashion retail.
Average Optical Goods Store Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every optical goods retailer with paid employees, from an independent optician's shop to the branches of national optical chains, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of stores gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.
≈$1,403,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
11,183
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $15.7 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $15.7 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 11,183 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,403,000 per employer establishment.
Scope: Optical Goods Retailers, NAICS 456130. The category covers stores retailing prescription and nonprescription eyeglasses, contact lenses and sunglasses, including chain optical stores with an optometrist on site when retailing is the main activity. Optometry and ophthalmology offices are counted in health care. Classified separately in group 4561: 456110 Pharmacies and Drug Retailers; 456120 Cosmetics, Beauty Supplies, and Perfume Retailers; 456191 Food (Health) Supplement Retailers, and 1 further code. 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
Five-Year Survival in the Retail Sector Sector-level
Federal data does not track survival for optical goods stores specifically. The honest closest measure is the sector that contains them: Retail Trade (NAICS 44-45). Here is the most recent fully observed five-year cohort.
59.8 percent of Retail Trade establishments opened in the year ended March 2020 were still operating five years later. Five-year survival was similar across these two consecutive cohorts: 60.7 percent and 59.8 percent.
Read this as sector base rates, not as a promise for this specific trade. This continuation curve is a broader Retail Trade benchmark, not a survival series specific to optical goods stores. The sector contains many business types with different economics, and survival for any one of them can sit above or below the curve. Optical retail depends heavily on vision benefit plans and on brand access, and a store's fate can turn on a single plan network or supplier decision rather than on the sector trend.
Source US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 · Scope Retail Trade sector, national · Observed through March 2025
Source and definition
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈18% |
Payroll share of receipts, Optical Goods Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 18.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share that reflects a trade where frames, lenses and lab work carry much of the price, though the fitting and adjusting at the counter still needs trained staff.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish cost of goods, so nothing on this page shows what a store keeps after paying for frames, lenses and lab services.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 6.7 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 2.84 |
Scale and ownership, Optical Goods Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 6.7 people, and the industry averaged 2.8 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 could be a couple of opticians on the dispensing floor and a front desk.
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
Optical Goods Store: what sits between the eye exam and the frame on the wall.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- Is there an optometrist attached? Many optical stores operate beside or around an eye doctor whose exams feed the dispensing floor, while others fill prescriptions written elsewhere. The arrangement decides where patients come from and how much of the visit the store captures, and the census counts the store on its own.
- Which vision plans does the store accept? Vision benefit plans bring a steady flow of patients but set allowances and reimbursement rules that cap what a store can charge for covered frames and lenses. A store's plan mix shapes revenue per pair more than its location does.
- Where are the lenses made? Stores with an in-house edging lab can finish jobs the same day and keep the lab margin, while stores that send work to outside labs trade that margin for lower fixed cost. Lab economics are a large part of the result and invisible in a receipts total.
- Chain, franchise or independent? National optical chains, franchised stores and independent opticians share this category with different buying terms, marketing and plan access. The establishments per firm figure above shows how common multi-store operators are, so the average is not a single-shop figure.
- What does the frame inventory cost? Frames must be stocked in depth across brands and styles, and a wall of designer frames represents cash that turns over slowly. Inventory investment per store is a central number that a revenue benchmark does not show.
- How much competition comes from online? Online eyewear sellers compete hard on price for simple prescriptions, while fitting, adjustments and complex lenses keep customers in stores. A store's share of complex work decides how exposed it is, and the census cannot see that split.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each store with paid staff. Optometry and ophthalmology offices are counted in health care, and an optician working alone is not counted.
The survival curve is a sector-level series from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and describes the whole Retail Trade sector, not this business type on its own.