38 Essential Accounting Statistics for 2024

Whether you use accounting software, outsource your books to a virtual accountant or employ an entire team of in-house CPAs, bookkeeping and accounting are essential components of your day-to-day business operations. Staying on top of accounting industry trends is essential to making sure your business’s practices and technologies are ahead of the curve. Keep reading — we showcase 38 crucial accounting stats to make sure you’re in the loop.

Jump to:

• General accounting statistics
• Accounting software
• Employment in Accounting

General accounting statistics

1. In 2022, the accounting industry’s global revenue hit a whopping $592.4 billion. (IBISWorld)
2. Just four firms accounted for $190 billion in global accounting services revenue in 2022: Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst & Young and PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers). (Statista)
3. The accounting industry’s global revenue in 2022 marked an annual increase of 5.9%, which exceeded the previous five years’ annual average growth of 3.7%. (IBISWorld)
4. In 2022, the global accounting service industry grew faster than the global economy generally and the global business activities sector specifically. (IBISWorld)
5. In the United States in particular, accounting services generated a revenue of nearly $144.2 billion USD in 2022 — the highest total revenue the accounting industry has ever generated. (Statista)
6. However, estimates suggest the industry surpassed 2022’s record this year with an annual revenue of $145 billion USD. (Statista)
7. In 2022, there were 88,510 accounting firms across the U.S. (IBISWorld)
8. California — the most populous state in the Union — has the greatest number of accounting firms at 12,494 distinct businesses. Florida comes in second with 9,005 accounting firms, and Texas comes in third with 7,271 accounting firms. (IBISWorld)
9. Collectively, the 88.5K accounting service businesses in the U.S. employed 590,590 American workers in 2022. (IBISWorld)
10. While the number of working accountants increased by an average of 1.8% year over year between 2017 and 2022, the average per-employee revenue at U.S. accounting firms dropped during that same five-year time period. (IBISWorld)
11. However, in 2023, 75% of accounting firms surveyed by software provider Xero reported experiencing higher revenue than they did in 2022, and 73% reported experiencing higher profits as well. (Xero)

Accounting software

12. This year, 66% of businesses in the accounting service industry said they experienced better staff retention, increased revenue and increased profit when they used cloud accounting software. (Xero)
13. In 2020, 43% of accounting firms said they believed incorporating new technologies into their business had increased productivity. (Sage)
14. In 2019, 54% of accounts said accounting technology had enabled them to serve their clients faster, and 43% said that technology improved their customer satisfaction rates. (Sage)
15. Per a survey of 794 UK-based accountants, 33% of respondents said using technology had dramatically increased the amount of time they were able to spend with clients. A further 41% said the use of technology “somewhat” increased the time they spent with clients. (QuickBooks)
16. Among the same survey group, 36% of respondents said they believed technology had also made the time they spent with clients much more meaningful. Another 40% said the use of technology had made their time with clients “somewhat” more meaningful. (QuickBooks)
17. A QuickBooks survey of 2,000 accountants in the UK revealed that 41% believe accounting firms that incorporated technology into their business were much likelier to outlast a recession than less technologically-savvy companies. A further 43% responded “somewhat agree” to the same statement. (QuickBooks)
18. In 2023, 62% of all small accounting firms in the U.S. reported using cloud-based accounting software compared to 45% of mid-sized firms and 44% of large firms. (Xero)

Employment in accounting

19. The top four accounting companies employ around 1.5 million individuals across the globe in 2022. (Statista)
20. In the U.S. alone, Deloitte — the biggest of the top four accounting firms by revenue — employed around 412,000 people. (Statista).
21. Per 2022 data, 1.5 million Americans were working as accountants or auditors. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
22. California — the country’s most populous state — employs 157,000 accountants and auditors, the most of any state. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
23. In 2022, the median national pay for accountants and auditors was $78,000 per year or $37.50 per hour. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
24. With 110,000 workers, New York comes in second in terms of accounting industry employees. Texas takes third with just over 106,000 employees. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
25. The District of Columbia takes first place in terms of overall pay: Accountants and auditors earn a mean annual wage of $110,000. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
26. As a state, California is fourth in the nation for paying accountants, who earn an annual mean wage of $96,200. Predictably, though, the San Jose metropolitan area is the nation’s top-paying region for accountants: Bay Area accountants earn a mean wage of $116,000 per year or almost $56 per hour. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
27. Unsurprisingly, the New York City-Newark-Jersey City metro area takes second place, paying a mean wage of $114,280 per year or $54.94 per hour. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
28. The San Francisco metropolitan area takes third place in terms of overall pay with a mean wage of $114,050 per year or $54.83 per hour. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
29. Unfortunately, the accounting industry suffers from a wide gender pay gap: In 2021, female accountants earned $230 less per week than men employed in the same role. (Statista)
30. The accounting industry’s gender pay gap is especially dismaying given that in 2019, nearly 62% of accountants in the U.S. were women. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
31. Year over year, the accounting industry expands by 4% in the United States — which is the average rate of growth of jobs overall. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
32. The accounting industry’s 4% growth rate means around 126,500 new accounting and auditing jobs open up each year. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
33. A modest 23% of accountants/auditors work tax preparation, payroll, bookkeeping or accounting jobs. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
34. Other top accounting jobs included finance and insurance jobs (8% of workers), government jobs (8% of workers), company and enterprise managerial jobs (6% of workers) and self-employment jobs (4%). (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
35. A smaller margin of accountants and auditors become financial analysts, budget analysts, personal finance experts, postsecondary educators and tax examiners or revenue agents. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)
36. In 2020, 42% of accounting firms said they were making a concerted effort to diversify their workforce (compared to 30% of firms surveyed the year previous). (Sage)
37. Smaller accounting firms had a greater commitment to diversifying their workforces in 2020: 29% of small firms said they were committed to diversification compared to just 11% of mid-size firms. (Sage)
38. 51% of accountants surveyed by Sage in 2020 believed that technological skills will be the most important skill for accountants to master over the next decade. (Sage)

Read next: Bookkeeping vs. Accounting: What Are the Key Differences? (TechRepublic)