Dividend Yield by Industry
The thirty highest-yielding industries in our coverage, by median current yield.
Industry medians expose where high yield is structural rather than exceptional: mortgage REITs, BDCs and tobacco top such tables in every market cycle, because their business models are built to distribute. A stock yielding far above its own industry's median deserves scrutiny; one matching it is simply typical of its structure.
Key Observations
- Among industries with at least five covered payers, REIT - Mortgage shows the highest median yield (16.55%).
- Industry medians embed structure, not bargains: the highest figures come from vehicles required to distribute income (mortgage REITs, BDCs) rather than from mispricing.
Median dividend yield by industry (top 30, min. 5 payers)
| Industry | Payers | Median yield |
|---|---|---|
| REIT - Mortgage | 22 | 16.55% |
| Financial - Mortgages | 7 | 8.58% |
| Broadcasting | 7 | 6.45% |
| REIT - Diversified | 18 | 6.32% |
| REIT - Healthcare Facilities | 12 | 6.14% |
| Luxury Goods | 8 | 6.09% |
| Tobacco | 9 | 5.57% |
| Coal | 7 | 5.51% |
| REIT - Industrial | 19 | 5.28% |
| Oil & Gas Midstream | 26 | 5.22% |
| Asset Management | 64 | 5.02% |
| REIT - Retail | 20 | 4.87% |
| REIT - Residential | 21 | 4.82% |
| REIT - Office | 9 | 4.73% |
| Agricultural Inputs | 5 | 4.68% |
| Beverages - Alcoholic | 11 | 4.59% |
| Telecommunications Services | 38 | 4.39% |
| Auto - Manufacturers | 13 | 4.32% |
| Paper, Lumber & Forest Products | 12 | 4.31% |
| Agricultural - Machinery | 7 | 3.99% |
| Marine Shipping | 16 | 3.90% |
| Advertising Agencies | 8 | 3.90% |
| REIT - Specialty | 11 | 3.86% |
| General Transportation | 5 | 3.84% |
| Chemicals | 12 | 3.77% |
| Regulated Gas | 18 | 3.76% |
| Financial - Capital Markets | 15 | 3.57% |
| Banks - Diversified | 27 | 3.50% |
| Packaging & Containers | 20 | 3.45% |
| Oil & Gas Integrated | 12 | 3.44% |
Methodology
Median current yield for active common stocks with a computed rank, grouped by industry; industries with fewer than 5 covered payers omitted; top 30 shown.
Caveats
Small industries can swing on a handful of names; the 5-payer floor limits but does not remove that. Structure, not mispricing, drives the top of this table.
Sources: Dividendly computed metrics. Computed Oct 19, 2026.
Related Pages
Citing this research
These figures are computed from Dividendly's own stored dividend history and are free to read. If you reference them, please cite the page and the date the figures were computed — they are recalculated as new payments are recorded.
Dividendly. “Dividend Yield by Industry.”
Computed Oct 19, 2026. https://dividendly.ai/data/dividend-yield-by-industry/
We have not set reuse terms for this data. For anything beyond quotation with attribution, ask us first — some underlying inputs come from licensed providers.
Data updated Oct 19, 2026. This research page is generated from Dividendly's structured market and dividend dataset using the approach described on our methodology and data sources pages. Data is automatically validated using defined rules and may also be periodically reviewed. Research only, not investment advice. Spotted a data error? Report it.