Official data, decoded
Trucking by state: employers, owner-operators and who pays whom
Census counts trucking businesses two ways: those with paid employees and those with none. Put side by side, they show where owner-operators carry the state (nonemployer firms) and where employers do (payroll and headcount). The table below has all 50 states and DC, with a tile map and a calculator that places your own numbers next to your state.
Annual surveyCensus County Business Patterns 2023 and Nonemployer Statistics 2023, NAICS 484Data as of reference year 2023 (employers and nonemployers)Retrieved Oct 10, 2026, 05:31 UTCretrieved Oct 10, 2026
Read this first
These are annual counts of businesses and locations, not trucks or drivers. Employer establishments are places with paid employees (one company can have many). Nonemployer firms have no paid employees. The two sources are collected differently and cannot be added into one total of "carriers". Averages hide wide differences between firms. This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Map and calculator
Pick a measure, then read a state off the map or the table. The calculator puts your yearly figures next to your state.
Tile map: Nonemployer share of firms
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Click, tap or focus a state to read its figures. Every value is in the table below.
Pre-filled values are Example data. Replace them with your own yearly figures.
Your revenue against the state's average nonemployer receipts
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- State average, receipts per nonemployer firm
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- State average payroll per employee
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- Your payroll per employee
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- Difference from the state average
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Formula: payroll per employee = yearly payroll / employees. State figures are Census totals for NAICS 484 divided by their counts, rounded once to the cent. These are averages of all trucking businesses in the state, not a target or a benchmark for your size. Nothing you type leaves this page.
All 50 states and DC
Click a heading to sort.
| State | Employer establishments | Employees | Payroll per employee | Nonemployer firms | Nonemployer share of firms | Receipts per nonemployer firm | Establishments under 5 employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 2,150 | 29,145 | $57,043 | 10,477 | 83.0% | $111,993 | 61.9% |
| Alaska | 271 | 2,987 | $80,286 | 528 | 66.1% | $124,133 | 57.9% |
| Arizona | 2,308 | 35,341 | $59,211 | 11,895 | 83.7% | $120,787 | 67.5% |
| Arkansas | 1,640 | 38,150 | $62,580 | 7,478 | 82.0% | $116,910 | 63.7% |
| California | 24,075 | 159,689 | $60,270 | 104,485 | 81.3% | $123,366 | 79.5% |
| Colorado | 2,441 | 20,687 | $64,301 | 10,161 | 80.6% | $129,078 | 74.3% |
| Connecticut | 867 | 10,273 | $63,382 | 4,362 | 83.4% | $112,616 | 63.7% |
| Delaware | 356 | 3,012 | $72,268 | 1,541 | 81.2% | $119,625 | 70.2% |
| District of Columbia | 28 | 317 | $51,356 | 446 | 94.1% | $57,489 | 60.7% |
| Florida | 10,129 | 68,707 | $56,192 | 102,102 | 91.0% | $92,788 | 83.0% |
| Georgia | 5,525 | 66,826 | $58,853 | 37,730 | 87.2% | $94,394 | 71.1% |
| Hawaii | 234 | 3,393 | $57,132 | 350 | 59.9% | $88,234 | 47.0% |
| Idaho | 1,477 | 10,554 | $57,272 | 3,718 | 71.6% | $149,088 | 74.9% |
| Illinois | 15,020 | 86,658 | $63,561 | 60,424 | 80.1% | $106,230 | 85.2% |
| Indiana | 4,388 | 56,379 | $62,184 | 17,745 | 80.2% | $120,524 | 65.3% |
| Iowa | 3,037 | 38,734 | $58,019 | 8,263 | 73.1% | $147,900 | 72.3% |
| Kansas | 1,785 | 21,335 | $62,757 | 5,713 | 76.2% | $159,698 | 65.7% |
| Kentucky | 1,881 | 23,726 | $61,345 | 11,029 | 85.4% | $122,507 | 59.8% |
| Louisiana | 1,729 | 16,465 | $61,773 | 11,304 | 86.7% | $94,958 | 63.8% |
| Maine | 739 | 6,036 | $60,157 | 1,176 | 61.4% | $128,346 | 69.7% |
| Maryland | 2,016 | 18,708 | $57,808 | 10,942 | 84.4% | $104,388 | 71.0% |
| Massachusetts | 2,089 | 21,803 | $65,834 | 6,377 | 75.3% | $102,736 | 68.0% |
| Michigan | 5,216 | 50,402 | $61,807 | 21,422 | 80.4% | $106,714 | 74.1% |
| Minnesota | 3,240 | 30,519 | $62,439 | 17,907 | 84.7% | $133,381 | 73.1% |
| Mississippi | 1,446 | 21,094 | $54,920 | 10,551 | 87.9% | $108,068 | 62.0% |
| Missouri | 3,531 | 42,098 | $58,203 | 13,735 | 79.5% | $127,064 | 69.2% |
| Montana | 836 | 4,559 | $64,163 | 1,609 | 65.8% | $143,925 | 74.3% |
| Nebraska | 1,941 | 17,037 | $60,945 | 5,868 | 75.1% | $138,512 | 75.1% |
| Nevada | 1,163 | 11,409 | $64,570 | 6,776 | 85.4% | $115,822 | 71.9% |
| New Hampshire | 400 | 3,939 | $62,484 | 904 | 69.3% | $129,637 | 62.2% |
| New Jersey | 4,868 | 45,566 | $60,881 | 25,779 | 84.1% | $115,906 | 72.1% |
| New Mexico | 857 | 8,288 | $67,570 | 3,716 | 81.3% | $137,237 | 64.1% |
| New York | 5,850 | 47,971 | $58,769 | 37,145 | 86.4% | $85,603 | 71.7% |
| North Carolina | 4,948 | 51,859 | $57,212 | 22,923 | 82.2% | $104,417 | 71.3% |
| North Dakota | 1,065 | 9,157 | $69,722 | 2,166 | 67.0% | $163,078 | 71.6% |
| Ohio | 5,444 | 73,687 | $62,262 | 32,815 | 85.8% | $129,121 | 63.3% |
| Oklahoma | 1,806 | 22,503 | $64,906 | 8,158 | 81.9% | $130,815 | 66.1% |
| Oregon | 2,023 | 21,246 | $62,829 | 5,248 | 72.2% | $139,028 | 67.1% |
| Pennsylvania | 6,299 | 71,958 | $63,741 | 26,925 | 81.0% | $121,461 | 68.6% |
| Rhode Island | 405 | 3,054 | $68,699 | 1,334 | 76.7% | $84,997 | 75.6% |
| South Carolina | 2,158 | 21,938 | $58,263 | 12,702 | 85.5% | $104,898 | 68.5% |
| South Dakota | 947 | 5,325 | $54,545 | 2,322 | 71.0% | $160,784 | 75.3% |
| Tennessee | 2,768 | 65,211 | $59,495 | 15,100 | 84.5% | $113,592 | 57.4% |
| Texas | 14,177 | 166,894 | $62,861 | 129,002 | 90.1% | $120,087 | 68.6% |
| Utah | 1,816 | 27,065 | $61,494 | 4,493 | 71.2% | $132,033 | 70.3% |
| Vermont | 268 | 1,914 | $65,683 | 583 | 68.5% | $126,702 | 61.9% |
| Virginia | 3,387 | 37,205 | $57,399 | 14,436 | 81.0% | $105,881 | 67.6% |
| Washington | 3,959 | 29,340 | $63,684 | 14,877 | 79.0% | $138,467 | 73.3% |
| West Virginia | 711 | 6,073 | $60,506 | 1,855 | 72.3% | $125,128 | 59.2% |
| Wisconsin | 3,913 | 52,779 | $64,953 | 9,459 | 70.7% | $144,310 | 65.3% |
| Wyoming | 659 | 4,213 | $70,354 | 1,159 | 63.8% | $150,131 | 68.4% |
Sources: County Business Patterns and Nonemployer Statistics. Employer establishments, employees and payroll: 2023. Nonemployer firms and receipts: 2023. Payroll per employee = annual payroll / employees. Receipts per nonemployer firm = total receipts / firms. U.S. totals from this snapshot: 170,286 employer establishments, 1,693,228 employees, 879,215 nonemployer firms; average payroll per employee $61,111; average receipts per nonemployer firm $114,222.
What it means for your fleet
- Know which crowd you compete with. In a state with a high nonemployer share, many of the trucks around you are single-truck businesses. In a state with a low share, employers set more of the pay and rate pressure.
- Use payroll per employee as a rough check. If your own figure is far below the state average, drivers have a reason to leave; far above, check what it does to your cost per mile.
- Do not use averages as a rate. Receipts per firm mix a one-truck hauler and a part-time operator. Your cost per mile is the number that matters.
- Check where you register and where you work. Census assigns a business to a state by its tax address. A carrier registered in one state can run most of its miles in another.
- Read the year. These figures are 2023. Re-check when a newer release is out.
Questions
What is a nonemployer firm?
In Census data a nonemployer business has no paid employees, is subject to federal income tax and has receipts. Many are owner-operators who work alone. The count comes from tax records, not a survey. Employer data comes from County Business Patterns, which counts establishments (locations) with paid employees and excludes self-employed people without employees.
Can I compare my pay with the average payroll per employee?
Only loosely. The Census figure divides all payroll of trucking employers in a state by all their employees, including office staff, mechanics and part-year workers, and it is for 2023. It is not a driver wage. For driver pay see the BLS-based pages. Use it to see whether you are far from the state average, not to set pay.
Why are the years different from the diesel pages?
Census publishes these tables about a year or more after the reference year. Employer and nonemployer data here are both for 2023. They describe the industry in that year, not today.
Why are some states missing counts?
All 50 states and DC are present in the snapshot with no suppression flag on employees or payroll. A state with few establishments can still be volatile from year to year.
Does this include private fleets?
No. NAICS 484 is for-hire and some contract trucking industries (truck transportation). Trucks run by a retailer or manufacturer for its own freight are counted in that business, not here.
Related guides and tools
- Trucking labor and prices: BLS jobs, pay and the truckload price index
- Detention cost: driver pay per waiting hour by state
- Carrier safety: roadside outcomes for 5 to 15 truck carriers
- Cost per mile: your own cost per mile
- Open data atlas: every source and its limits
- Intelligence hub: all open-data pages
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