Marina Industry Statistics 2026: Businesses, Jobs & Capacity

Short answer: the United States had 3,985 private marina establishments with employees in 2025, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Canada had 921 marina locations in December 2025, according to Statistics Canada. Those two numbers are not built the same way, and neither is a count of slips. This report explains what each official source measures, what the latest data shows about marina businesses, jobs and wages, where marinas cluster, and what can and cannot be said about capacity.

It focuses on the supply side: the businesses that rent slips, sell fuel, store boats and run service yards. For the demand side, including participation, retail marine spending, boat sales and the registered fleet, see Recreational Boating Industry Statistics 2026. This is a 2026 edition built on the latest published source years (2023 to 2025). It does not report 2026 results.

What counts as a marina

Both countries use NAICS code 713930, Marinas. Under the NAICS definition, this covers establishments primarily engaged in operating docking and storage facilities for pleasure craft owners, with or without related activities such as retailing fuel and marine supplies, boat repair and maintenance, and rental services. A dealership with a few slips, a yacht club or a municipal launch ramp may be classified elsewhere, which is one reason official counts look lower than everyday impressions of how many marinas there are.

The widest figure comes from the Association of Marina Industries, which estimated that 11,500 US marina businesses had an $18 billion total economic impact ($5 billion direct) and supported an estimated 105,000 full-time, part-time and seasonal employees. That model was published in 2018, uses IMPLAN economic modelling, and drew on revenue data for 7,333 marina businesses within its estimated universe. It counts total impact, including indirect and induced spending, and a broader set of businesses than the official employer surveys. It is useful context for industry scale, but it measures something different from the QCEW and CBP counts.

In BLS QCEW data, private marina establishments peaked at 4,050 in 2022 and eased to 3,985 in 2025, a drop of 0.9% from 2024. Employment kept rising through the same period. Fizel Research calculates that employment grew 9.8% between 2019 and 2025 while the establishment count grew 0.5%. Total wages rose 49.2% and average annual pay rose 35.8%, both in nominal dollars before inflation.

The pandemic dip is visible in 2020, when employment fell to 35,698 even as the establishment count edged up. Employment recovered past its 2019 level in 2021 and has risen every year since. The data does not say why, and Fizel does not attribute the trend to a single cause. Consolidation, more service work per facility and longer operating seasons are all plausible contributors that the counts alone cannot separate.

The 2023 County Business Patterns count 3,739 marina employer establishments with 32,549 employees in the March pay period and $1.67 billion in annual payroll. Fizel Research calculates that 77.2% of those establishments had fewer than 10 employees and 91.2% had fewer than 20. The March employment figure sits below the QCEW annual average because many marinas staff up for the boating season after March.

Canada shows a similar pattern among employers. Of 523 Canadian marina locations with employees in December 2025, 190 had 1 to 4 employees and 149 had 5 to 9, so 64.8% had fewer than 10 (Fizel calculation). Only 15 had 50 or more.

Fizel Research calculates that the top five states hold 1,513 of 3,739 marina employer establishments, or 40.5%. Florida alone has 14.0% and employs more marina workers than any other state. Texas ranks eighth by establishments but third by March employment, which points to larger average facilities. New York and New Jersey show the reverse: many establishments, relatively few employees per site, consistent with smaller and more seasonal operations.

Statistics Canada reported 921 marinas as of December 2025. The underlying Canadian Business Counts release shows that total is 523 locations with employees plus 398 without. Fizel Research calculates that Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec hold 815 of them, or 88.5%. Ontario alone has nearly half, reflecting the Great Lakes, the Trent Severn and Rideau systems and cottage country lakes.

The US Coast Guard's Recreational Boating Statistics 2024 report 11,674,073 recreational vessels registered by the states in 2024, up 1.1% from 11,546,512 in 2023. Set against the 3,985 QCEW marina establishments in 2025, Fizel Research calculates roughly 2,930 registered vessels per marina establishment.

That ratio is a pressure indicator, not a measure of slip demand. Many registered boats are trailered home, launched at public ramps or kept at private docks, and never need a marina slip. Public and municipal marinas are largely outside the private establishment count, and establishments vary enormously in size. The ratio is useful for one thing: showing that a very large fleet depends on a relatively small number of private marina businesses for wet slips, storage and service.

Fizel Research searched for a current, authoritative national series of US or Canadian marina slips or storage spaces and did not find one from a government or primary industry source. Without it, any national slip count would be a guess, so this report does not estimate one.

The data describes an industry of small, mostly owner-led employers carrying a growing wage bill. Average pay rose about 36% in six years in nominal terms while headcount per site crept up. For a marina with eight staff, that adds up quickly, and it raises the value of anything that cuts admin time at the fuel dock, the ship store and the service desk.

Concentration matters too. In Florida and other year-round markets, marinas run close to continuous operations. In New York, Michigan, Ontario and Quebec, the season is compressed and annual slip and winter storage billing does much of the work of smoothing cash flow. Our guide to payment processing for marinas covers slip contracts, transient dockage, fuel and service invoices in detail, and the Fizel marina payments page explains how Fizel works with marinas.

For a small office team, that seasonal billing load is mostly process. We set out one approach in how marinas run renewals, deposits and instalment schedules, with an illustrative cash-flow model.

With payroll rising, processing costs are one line worth checking. A free statement analysis shows what a marina's current card processing actually costs.

Sources

• US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment and Wages Annual Averages 2025 (QCEW)
• US Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW downloadable data files, industry 713930, 2019 to 2025
• US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 713930 Marinas
• US Census Bureau, County Business Patterns datasets (cbp23us and cbp23st files)
• Statistics Canada, The Daily: Canadian business counts, December 2025
• Statistics Canada, Table 33-10-1095-01, Canadian Business Counts, with employees, December 2025
• Statistics Canada, Table 33-10-1096-01, Canadian Business Counts, without employees, December 2025
• Statistics Canada, StatsCAN Plus: Tapping into water data
• Statistics Canada, NAICS Canada 2022, 713930 Marinas definition
• Association of Marina Industries, Marina Economic Impact Study, full report (May 2018)
• US Coast Guard, Recreational Boating Statistics 2024