Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Tutoring and Test Prep Center Revenue Benchmark
Centers that teach exam preparation and academic tutoring, in person or online, outside the school system.
Average Tutoring Center Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every exam preparation and tutoring business with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing one by the other gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment below.
≈$747,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
9,750
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $7.3 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $7.3 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 9,750 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $747,000 per employer establishment. Franchised centers and independent single-location tutors are averaged together here.
Scope: Exam Preparation and Tutoring, NAICS 611691. Classified separately in group 6116: 611610 Fine Arts Schools; 611620 Sports and Recreation Instruction; 611630 Language Schools, and 2 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
Other Schools and Instruction, NAICS 6116, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.
58.1%the year-five count as a share of the starting count
Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 53.3 to 58.1 percent. This benchmark covers Other Schools and Instruction, NAICS 6116, as a whole, and this category accounts for 9,750 of the 58,784 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.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈36% |
Payroll share of receipts, Exam Preparation and Tutoring, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 36.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll. Instruction is the product, so the ratio follows what a center pays its tutors against what families pay for sessions.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes, payments to tutors engaged as contractors and owner compensation, so the full cost of instruction sits above this share.
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 | 11.4 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.14 |
Scale and ownership, Exam Preparation and Tutoring, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 11.4 people, and the industry counted 1.1 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
Tutoring and Test Prep Center: where the figures stop being useful.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- How seasonal is the demand? Test calendars drive the exam preparation side, while ongoing tutoring runs through the year. A center weighted toward exams can earn much of its year in a few months and still pay rent through the quiet ones.
- Is the model group classes or one to one? Group teaching multiplies revenue per instructor hour while one to one caps it, and the census average blends the two.
- What does student acquisition cost? Exam preparation is often bought once or twice per child while ongoing tutoring can run for years, and the two build very different customer bases.
- How much depends on a single exam format? A change to an admissions test can remove a large part of demand in one cycle, and preparation materials built for it lose value immediately.
- How is instructor quality kept consistent? Results are the marketing in this trade, and instructor quality can materially affect referrals and retention.
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 a center with paid staff at a physical location. A tutor working alone without employees is not included, which matters in a trade with many sole practitioners.