Investigation and Background Check Service Revenue Benchmark

Average Investigation and Background Check Service Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every investigation and personal background check service with paid employees, from a local private detective agency to a national screening firm, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of establishments gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$1,516,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $6.2 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 4,060 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,516,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Investigation and Personal Background Check Services, NAICS 561611. The category covers private investigators, detective agencies and firms providing background checks and related services. Security guard companies and security system installers are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 5616: 561612 Security Guards and Patrol Services; 561613 Armored car services; 561621 Security Systems Services (except Locksmiths), 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

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Investigation and Security Services, NAICS 5616, 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 50.1 to 56.9 percent. This benchmark covers Investigation and Security Services, NAICS 5616, as a whole, and this category accounts for 4,060 of the 26,940 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, Investigation and Personal Background Check Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 33.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a substantial share because investigators, researchers and screening analysts are the service, though database fees and subcontracted field work take a meaningful part of the rest.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and in an investigator-owned agency the owner's own cases produce revenue that sits outside the payroll figure entirely.

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, Investigation and Personal Background Check Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 11.2 people, and the industry counted 1.1 employer establishments per firm. That staff count blends small detective agencies with larger screening firms that process background checks at volume, and the establishments per firm figure shows a trade of mostly single-office businesses.

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

Investigation and Background Check Service: what a licensed, case-based trade looks like inside an average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• Investigations or screening? A private investigator billing hourly surveillance and a screening company selling automated background checks by the thousand share this category with very different economics. The average mixes labor-intensive casework with volume processing.
• Who are the clients? Law firms, insurers, corporations, employers and private individuals bring different case types, rates and payment reliability, and an agency dependent on one insurer or one law firm carries concentration risk. The client base is invisible in the figure.
• Which licenses and rules apply? Most states require private investigators to be licensed, with experience, examination, bonding and other requirements that vary by state and locality, and screening firms face federal and state rules on consumer reports and data use. Compliance is a permanent cost and a limit on where an agency can work.
• How much of the work is billable? Surveillance hours, travel and report writing can be billed, but case development, court waiting time and unsuccessful skip traces often cannot. Utilization of investigator time is the core number of the trade and the average cannot show it.
• What do data and tools cost? Subscription databases, public records fees, GPS and camera equipment and case management software are recurring costs that grow with the caseload. They sit outside a payroll figure and inside every case.
• How is liability handled? Surveillance, pretexting and reporting errors can lead to lawsuits, and professional liability insurance and careful procedures are the price of operating. That exposure shapes how agencies work and appears nowhere in receipts.