RV Dealer Revenue Benchmark

Average RV Dealer Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every recreational vehicle dealer with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts, which include the motor homes and trailers sold. Dividing that total by the number of dealerships gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$14,469,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $43.2 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 2,988 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $14,469,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Recreational Vehicle Dealers, NAICS 441210. The category covers dealers of new and used recreational vehicles, including motor homes, travel trailers and campers. RV rental businesses and RV parks are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 4412: 441222 Boat Dealers; 441227 Motorcycle, ATV, and All Other Motor Vehicle Dealers. 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 Smaller cohort

Other motor vehicle dealers, NAICS 4412, 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 59.6 to 65.8 percent. This benchmark covers Other motor vehicle dealers, NAICS 4412, as a whole, and this category accounts for 2,988 of the 14,661 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, Recreational Vehicle Dealers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 10.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share that follows from the price of the vehicles: a single motor home carries a large sum through receipts with a small amount of labor attached to the sale.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish the cost of the vehicles or the interest paid on inventory financing, so nothing on this page shows what a dealership keeps.

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, Recreational Vehicle Dealers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 20.3 people, and the industry counted 1.4 employer establishments per firm. An RV dealership employs a sales floor, a finance office, technicians and a parts counter, which explains a staff count well above most retail categories, and the establishments per firm figure shows that dealer groups operating several stores are common alongside single-site owners.

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

RV Dealer: reading a high-ticket average through the cycle that drives it.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• Where was the cycle when the year was counted? RV demand swings widely with interest rates, fuel prices and consumer confidence, and a strong year can be followed by a sharp fall in unit sales. A single census year describes one point in that cycle, not a steady state.
• How much of the result comes from finance and insurance? Arranging loans, extended service contracts and insurance at the point of sale earns fees that can rival the margin on the vehicle itself. That stream is invisible in a receipts total but central to how a dealership is run.
• What does aged inventory cost? Units financed on floor plan accrue interest every month, and last year's models must be discounted once new ones arrive. How quickly the lot turns over decides how much of that revenue was eaten by carrying cost.
• Is the service department a strength? Warranty work, repairs, upgrades and seasonal maintenance bring owners back for years after a sale and smooth the swings in unit demand. Technician capacity and warranty reimbursement terms shape that department more than the national average does.
• Which brands and territories does the dealer hold? Manufacturer agreements assign brands and territories, set stocking requirements and control allocation in strong years. A dealer's franchise portfolio is a major asset that no census figure measures.
• How much land does the lot need? Motor homes and trailers occupy far more space per unit than cars, so a dealership needs acres of paved display and storage space, often near a highway. That land, whether owned or leased, carries a fixed cost that revenue does not reveal.