Business Data & Benchmarks · United States

Testing Laboratories Revenue Benchmark

Laboratories performing physical, chemical and other analytical testing outside medical diagnostics.

NAICS 541380, 2022 editionUnited States data by defaultSources and dates shown

Average Testing Laboratory Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every testing laboratory with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing one by the other gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment below.

≈$3,505,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

7,970

Employer establishments in the United States, 2022

as published $27.9 billion

Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022

How this is calculated: about $27.9 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 7,970 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $3,505,000 per employer establishment. Regulation drives much of this demand, so testing volume follows compliance requirements more than discretionary spending.

Scope: Testing Laboratories and Services, NAICS 541380. Classified separately in group 5413: 541310 Architectural Services; 541320 Landscape Architectural Services; 541330 Engineering Services, and 4 further codes. 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 July 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services, NAICS 5413, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

62.0%the year-five count as a share of the starting count

Five-year establishment continuation benchmarkLine chart of industry continuation: 82.4 percent at 1 year, 74.0 percent at 2 years, 69.2 percent at 3 years, 66.0 percent at 4 years, 62.0 percent at 5 years. 6,580 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.100%75%50%25%0%2014-2018 cohort range: 58.7 to 66.3 percentStart: 100 percent, the starting count1 year: 82.4 percent of the starting count2 years: 74.0 percent of the starting count3 years: 69.2 percent of the starting count4 years: 66.0 percent of the starting count5 years: 62.0 percent of the starting count82.474.069.266.062.0Start1 year2 years3 years4 years5 years6,580 establishments first reported paid employment in 2018; BusinessNES calculation from Census BDS.
Five years on, this industry group counted about 62 establishments aged five for every 100 that first reported paid employment in 2018. Census compares counts by age rather than following the same businesses, so read it as a broad continuation indicator for the industry group, not as a tracked survival rate.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 58.7 to 66.3 percent. This benchmark covers Architectural, Engineering, and Related Services, NAICS 5413, as a whole, and this category accounts for 7,970 of the 119,256 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.

MeasureValue
Annual payroll share of receipts, United States≈40%

Payroll share of receipts, Testing Laboratories and Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 40.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll. Accredited technical staff run the methods, and accreditation is what a client is buying alongside the result.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes instruments, calibration and consumables, which are substantial here.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

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

MeasureValue
Paid employees per employer establishment20.7
Employer establishments per firm1.4

Scale and ownership, Testing Laboratories and Services, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 20.7 people, and the industry counted 1.4 employer establishments per firm.

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.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Testing Laboratories and Services: details the totals conceal.

Before you rely on this benchmark

  • What accreditations does the laboratory hold? Accreditation is often part of what a client is buying alongside the result, and maintaining it costs money and staff time whether or not samples arrive.
  • How much of the demand is regulatory? Testing required by regulation is steadier than testing bought by choice, and the two respond very differently to a downturn.
  • What is the instrument replacement cycle? Service contracts and calibration run alongside the purchase price and continue whether or not samples arrive. One instrument out of calibration can idle a whole test line, so redundancy on the busiest methods is a commercial decision, not a technical one.
  • What turnaround is promised? Promised turnaround sets staffing and shift patterns, and a laboratory competing on speed carries capacity it cannot always fill.
  • Who holds the chain of custody? Evidence quality depends on documented handling, and a break in that chain can void a result that was technically correct.
  • How is capacity planned around demand peaks? Regulatory deadlines cluster, and a laboratory sized for the average month either turns work away or carries idle capacity for the rest of the year.

Explore More on BusinessNES

Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.

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.

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 staffed laboratory rather than each company or accreditation.