NPS Industry Benchmark Scores by Sector

July 14, 2026

Why a Raw NPS Number Isn’t Enough

An NPS of 35 sounds solid on its own, but whether it’s actually good depends entirely on the industry. Software companies, which historically fight high churn and low switching costs, tend to post lower average scores than industries like insurance or construction, where relationships are longer and switching is a hassle for the customer. Comparing your score only against Bain’s global absolute thresholds — without checking your sector — is one of the more common ways companies misread their own NPS (see common mistakes when calculating or interpreting NPS for more on this).

Sector Benchmark Table

The table below is drawn from SurveyMonkey’s 2025 cross-industry benchmark study, based on survey responses collected across its platform and reported as lower-quartile, median, and upper-quartile NPS by sector. The median column is the most useful single number for “what’s typical in my industry.”

Industry	Lower Quartile	Median (Typical)	Upper Quartile
Software & Online Services	17	44	68
Technology (hardware/general)	22	50	70
Transportation & Logistics	20	44	67
Media & Entertainment	31	57	77
Real Estate	32	58	78
Retail	36	57	74
Financial Services (ex. insurance)	35	60	78
Finance (broad)	34	59	80
Healthcare	37	62	82
Insurance	36	65	86
Consulting	42	48	72
Education	38	60	75
Government	38	62	80
Nonprofits	41	63	79
Construction	40	64	81

Across all industries in the same dataset, the overall cross-industry average sits around 32, the median around 44, and the top quartile of companies (regardless of sector) clears 72.

Reading the Table Correctly

A few practical notes on using this table:

Compare within your row, not against the global average. A SaaS company scoring 44 is sitting right at its sector’s median — a respectable, unremarkable score — while a construction company scoring 44 is below its sector’s lower quartile and has real room to improve relative to peers.
Quartiles matter more than a single average. If your score falls in the lower quartile for your industry, that’s a meaningful gap even if the absolute number looks fine against Bain’s “above 0 is good” threshold.
These are directional, not precise. Benchmark studies vary by survey provider, sample composition, and year, because there’s no single central registry of every company’s NPS. Treat industry figures as a general reference point, not an exact target.

How This Compares to Bain’s Absolute Thresholds

Bain & Company, which developed NPS, also publishes its own absolute scoring guidance independent of industry: above 0 is generally positive, above 20 is favorable, above 50 is excellent, and above 80 is considered world-class. Use both lenses together — the NPS calculator shows you which absolute tier your score falls into, and this table shows how that score stacks up against companies in your specific sector.

Start with the score-band definitions in the Promoter, Passive & Detractor glossary
Learn how to collect a large enough, unbiased sample before comparing yourself to these benchmarks in how to run an NPS survey and interpret your score
See how different Promoter/Passive/Detractor splits produce scores across this benchmark range in NPS calculation examples for different response distributions