Sources for statistics on accountancy firms in the UK including number of partners and employees together with staff turnover/attrition rates. Diversity in accountancy firms is covered including sources for the number of female partners and those from ethnic backgrounds.
Number of partners
Top firms
Accountancy Age Top 50+50 accountancy firms
Annual listing of the top accountancy firms published by Accountancy Age which provides figures for the number of partners in the top 100 accountancy firms.
Recent surveys include:
- Accountancy Age: Top 50+50 Accountancy Firms 2023
- Accountancy Age: Top 50+50 Accountancy Firms 2022
- Accountancy Age: Top 50+50 Accountancy Firms 2021
- Accountancy Age: Top 50+50 Accountancy Firms 2021
- Accountancy Age: Top 50+50 Accountancy Firms 2020
- Accountancy Age: Top 50+50 Accountancy Firms 2019
Accountancy Daily Top 75 firms
A listing of the top 75 UK accountancy firms is published annually in Accountancy Daily which provides details of the number of partners in each firm.
Prior to 2019, the league table was published in Accountancy magazine. The 2003 to 2018 editions can be accessed through the Accountancy Daily website at Top UK firms. Older surveys may be available from the ICAEW Library & Information Service which holds a complete run of Accountancy magazine.
Number of employees
All firms
UK Business: Size, Activity and Location
The National Statistics publication UK Business: Size, Activity and Location provides statistics on the number of firms in seven size brackets, depending on the number of employees (0 - 4, 5 - 9, 10 - 19, 20 - 49, 50 - 99, 100 - 249, more than 250).
Recent statistics can be accessed via the UK business: activity, size and location dataset. Data from older releases is available via the National Archives web site. If comparing figures from different releases, please note that various changes have been made to the coverage of businesses over the years. See the publication's methodology for details.
These statistics record both VAT and PAYE based enterprises using the UK SIC code for accounting, book-keeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy. As such, they include all firms with this classification and not just the member firms of the CCAB bodies.
2017 onwards
The figures are published in Table 4 - Number of VAT and/or PAYE based enterprises by Standard Industrial Classification (UK SIC2007) class and employment sizebands. You will need to scroll down to find UK SIC code 6920 for accounting, book-keeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy.
2014 - 2016
The figures for accountancy firms are published in dataset 'UKBBb Enterprise/local units by 4 Digit SIC and Employment size band'. The table shows statistics for a number of sectors and you will need to scroll right to find the appropriate UK SIC code 6920 for accounting, book-keeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy.
In 2015 the coverage of businesses was increased to include a population of solely PAYE-based businesses that were previously excluded, for more details see Improving the coverage of UK Business, Activity, Size and Location.
2008-2013
The figures are published in Table B3.1: United Kingdom - Number of VAT and/or PAYE based enterprises in all industries by employment size band. The table shows statistics for a number of sectors and you will need to scroll down to the appropriate UK SIC code for accounting, book-keeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy (7412 in UK SIC 2003 - as used in the 2008 publication, 6920 in UK SIC 2007 - as used from the 2009 publication onwards).
1998-2007
Older editions of this publication are also available but it should be noted that the 2008 publication was 'the first to include businesses based on PAYE employers that are not also registered for VAT, extending the scope from the previous VAT-based tables.' This means that the figures from earlier editions cannot be compared directly with the 2008 edition or any subsequent editions.
Statistics on the accountancy market
Page from the ICAEW Library which contains sources for statistics covering total employees and employment for the accountancy sector.
Top firms
Accountancy Daily Top 75 firms
A listing of the top UK accountancy firms is published annually in Accountancy Daily and provides a figure for the number of staff in each of the top 75 firms.
Prior to 2019, the league table was published in Accountancy magazine. The 2003 to 2018 editions can be accessed through the Accountancy Daily website at Top UK firms. Older surveys may be available from the ICAEW Library & Information Service which holds a complete run of Accountancy magazine.
Diversity in accounting firms
Top firms
Accountancy Daily Top 75 firms
A listing of the top 75 UK accountancy firms is published annually in Accountancy Daily. Recent editions include the number of female and BAME partners for each firm. The number of female partners can also be found in some older tables.
Prior to 2019, the league table was published in Accountancy magazine. The 2003 to 2018 editions can be accessed through the Accountancy Daily website at Top UK firms. Older surveys may be available from the ICAEW Library & Information Service which holds a complete run of Accountancy magazine.
Accountancy Age Top 50+50 accountancy firms
Annual listing of the top 100 UK accountancy firms published by Accountancy Age. Data on the number of female and BAME partners and qualified accountants is available for some years.
Results from the 2020 survey are available in the article Top 50+50: UK accountancy aims to be inclusive, published on 20 October 2020. Top 50+50: is diversity in firms improving? was published on 1 November 2019 and contains figures from the 2019 survey.
Audit firms
Key facts and trends in the accountancy profession
Latest edition of the Financial Reporting Council's (FRC's) annual survey of the profession, published in August 2023, which includes a section on audit firms. This covers audit firms with Public Interest Entity (PIE) clients who responded to the FRC's survey.
It includes statistics on the diversity of senior management at PIE audit firms, broken down by managers, directors and partners. The percentages that are female, are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, have a disability or identify as LGBTQ+ are shown.
An archive of previous editions is available through the FRC website.
Further resources
Articles have been published in the global accountancy press on the diversity of accountants in firms and in the accountancy profession.
To find out more about the articles we hold please see Library holdings: Articles on the diversity of accountants.
Staff turnover and attrition
The Accountancy Age Top 50+50 accountancy firms, an annual survey of the top 100 UK accountancy firms published by Accountancy Age, includes a rate for staff attrition.
Staff attrition figures from the 2022 and 2021 surveys can be found in the the article UK accounting sector needs to put more emphasis on its people, published by Accountancy Age on 9 May 2023.
Figures from the 2020 and 2019 surveys are included in the article Top 50+50: UK accountancy aims to be inclusive, published on 20 October 2022.
Attrition rates in the UK Big Four
In an article in the Financial Times on 7 November 2023 (PwC to cut up to 600 UK jobs as attrition rate plunges) it was reported that PwC’s attrition rate had fallen by 5% and was now hovering at about 10%. The article stated that the planned redundancies "would still result in fewer people leaving than if attrition were at normal levels."
Deloitte UK publishes figures for the standard voluntary attrition rate in the performance metrics section of their annual report. The figures reported in the annual report for the 2021 financial year were 14.8% (2019 financial year), 12.8% (2020 financial year) and 9.7% (2021 financial year).
EY UK disclose figures for their attrition rate in their impact report. The report for the 2021 financial year states that "attrition rates fell 2% on prior year to 10.9%."
Other countries
INSIDE Public Accounting (IPA) publishes an annual National Practice Management Benchmarking Report which includes statistics on staff turnover rates for US accounting firms.
Highlights from the 2022 survey are available in the article IPA releases the 2022 National Practice Management Benchmarking Reports, published by IPA on 21 September 2022. The article IPA 2022 Benchmarking Snapshot: Staff Compensation/Turnover published on 9 June 2022 also highlights initial results from the survey.
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