April 24, 2025
The U.S. Census of Service Industries is performed every 5 years, with the last government survey performed in 2022. Commercial weight loss companies (“diet & reducing centers”) are classified under NAICS code 812191 (other personal services). Establishment and firms data for this industry have just been released (see census.gov). This information is publicly available, at no charge.
Marketdata / DietBuysinessWatch has reviewed this data, derived measures from it, and present some key statistics below. An establishment can be considered to be a branch or single outlet, and multiple establishments may be operated by a company (firm).
Number of commercial weight loss establishments: 2,506
Number of weight loss firms: 1,376
Industry receipts: $2.38 billion
Avg. annual receipts per establishment: $952,000
Payroll as a percent of receipts: 15.3%
Number of employees: 13,734
Employees per establishment: 5.5
Annual receipts per employee: $173,693
Market share (share of total industry revenues): 4 largest companies: 63.5%, 8 largest: 67.3%, 20 largest: 71.8%, 50 largest: 76.8%
Share of total receipts by revenue size of establishment:
estabs. with under $1ooK 0
$100k – $249,999 2.3 %
$250K – 499,999 7.3
$500K – 999,999 13.7
$1 – 2.5 million 28.5
$2.5 – 4.99 million 23.6
$5 – 9.99 million 6.0
$10 – 24.99 million 5.4
It should be noted that these statistics reflect operations prior to the GLP-1 drugs boom on 2023-2024.
Looking at the prior 2017 survey, Marketdata finds that industry receipts grew 34% from 2017 to 2022, an average of 6.8% per year. In addition, the average weight loss center/service had significantly higher annual revenues in 2022 ($597,000 in 2017), but the number of people employed by these services shrunk from 25,273 to just 13,734. The number of establishments decline from 2,982 to 2,506.
Census data can be useful as industry benchmarks by which a weight loss company can compare themselves against the industry averages. If their revenues fall substantially below the industry average of $952,000, for example, they may want to investigate the reasons. Is their sales staff less productive than average?
Learn More
More Census data is available from the 2022 survey, regarding multi-unit firms, etc. Want to have Marketdata perform a company analysis and audit of your operations versus the industry? Contact John LaRosa, Research Director, for a project proposal. Call: 813-971-8080 or email: john@marketdataenterprises.com. Or, consider purchasing Marketdata’s latest March 2025 report covering the commercial weight loss market.