Essential Accounting Statistics to Keep in Mind in 2023
If you’re looking for a well-paid job with lots of security and a good opportunity for growth, look no further than accounting. According to the latest accounting statistics, there are over a million accountants in the United States, and many times that number worldwide. Accountants work as freelancers and for accounting firms—in fact, many accountants work for just four firms, known as “The Big Four.” These four firms make up the bulk of accounting revenue globally.
To learn a bit more about this time-honored profession, we compiled a list of statistics and facts about accountants, CPAs, tax preparation, and more. Let’s dive in!
Top Accounting Statistics: Editor’s Choice
There are over 1.32 million accountants in the United States.
The median salary for an accountant in the US is $77,250 per year.
Accountants with a CPA credential can make 15% more annually.
Deloitte employs more accountants than any other firm in the United States.
Accounting revenue in the US was expected to reach $142 billion in 2022.
The Big Four accounting firms employ a total of 1.2 million people worldwide.
The ratio of male to female professional staff accountants in the US is close to 1:1.
The Accountants Confidence Index (ACI) dropped to 43.91 in Q3 of 2020.
California is the US state that employs the most accountants.
Accounting jobs are projected to grow by 7% between 2020 and 2030.
Accounting Statistics 2023
What is the accounting world like in 2024? Like many other economic sectors, accounting took a hit when Covid-19 struck. How is it bouncing back? How will the rising inflation and creeping recession affect accountants in the coming years? We dug into the latest statistics to answer these questions and more.
Accounting revenue in the US was expected to reach $142 billion in 2022.
According to reliable accounting stats, in 2021 the total revenue in the United States generated by accounting firms was $133.4 billion. This represented an increase from 2020’s total of $127.8 billion. Deloitte, the leader of the Big Four firms, took the lion’s share of about $56 billion of this total.
(Statista)
RSM International generated over $6 billion in revenue in 2021.
While the Big Four leading accounting firms tend to dominate the accounting market, that doesn’t mean that smaller firms are not performing. In 2020 and 2021, despite challenges, the international network of accounting firms called RSM saw a nearly 10% increase in its revenue.
The company, though small, has seen steady growth for the last five years. Similarly, BDO, another small international accounting firm network, saw over $10 billion in revenue in 2020 and has seen consistent growth since 2014.
(Statista)
The Accountants Confidence Index (ACI) dropped to 43.91 in Q3 of 2020.
One of the lesser-known accounting facts is that accountants have their own economic indicator. The Accountants Confidence Index (ACI) is an economic indicator published monthly. It gathers the collected knowledge and insight of accountants around the US to predict US business prospects for the coming months.
The ACI has suffered as a result of the pandemic, with the 3-month ACI still way below 50, which is the delineator between expectations of growth and expectations of contraction.
(Accounting Today, Statista)
In Q4 of 2021, the CPA Outlook Index bounced back to 74.
The CPA Outlook Index is similar to the ACI. It is an economic indicator based on the opinions of CPAs who are members of the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants). CPA statistics gathered from this index indicate that in the last quarter of 2021, the index increased by six points, after dropping eight points in Q3.
(Statista, Journal of Accountancy)
About 29% of accountancy professionals are concerned about rising labor costs.
Inflation creates problems for everybody, across all fields of the economy. In Q2 of 2021, in a survey given to accountants about the inflationary factors that posed the greatest threat to their profession, nearly one-third of respondents cited rising labor costs as their major concern.
(Statista)
Accounting Industry Statistics: The Big Four
The global accounting economy is dominated by a handful of major firms, known as “The Big Four.” These firms account for the majority of global accounting revenue and are considered highly desirable places to work for because of their frequent close contact with many Fortune 500 companies. Another of the more interesting facts about accounting to know is that until the late 20th Century, the Big Four were actually The Big Eight, until mergers and the collapse of one network consolidated them into four.
In 2021, the Big Four accounting firms generated over $167 billion in revenue.
The “Big Four” global accounting firms are Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), and Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG). Together, these companies generated combined total revenue of over $167 billion in 2021 and employed over 1 million people worldwide, according to statistics on accounting.
(Statista)
Of the Big Four accounting firms, Deloitte had the highest revenue in 2021.
Deloitte was the firm with the highest revenue in 2021, at just over $50 billion, with about 40% of it coming from consulting. PwC was the firm with the next-highest revenue, with about $45 billion, most of it coming from auditing. The latest accounting stats show that PwC generated about $17.6 billion from auditing services, while Ernst and Young generated $12.6 billion from auditing services in 2021.
(Statista)
The United States is the largest market for the Big Four accounting firms.
Deloitte generated over half of its revenue ($25.2 billion) in North and South America. Current trends in accounting show that although the US is the largest market for Deloitte, the other Big Four firms are starting to see more profit from other global regions. Approximately $16.7 billion of Deloitte’s revenue came from the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) while just $8 billion came from Asia.
PwC and EY saw similar breakdowns in their revenue locations, although PwC saw an increase in revenue from the Asia and Pacific regions.
(Statista)
The Big Four accounting firms employ a total of 1.2 million people worldwide.
According to one accounting statistic, Deloitte leads the way in the number of total employees, with 345,370 people being employed by the firm in 2021. The next largest company in terms of employees is EY, with 312,250 employees, followed by PwC with 295,371 staff members in 2021.
(Statista)
Number of Accountants in the US
The United States is the world’s largest market for accounting and employs more accountants than anywhere else in the world. The AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) has about 350,000 members, and there are many more accountants in the country who do not hold a CPA license. So how many accountants are in the United States, exactly?
In 2021, the number of accountants employed in the United States peaked at 1.32 million.
The previously recorded peak for the number of auditors and accountants employed in the US was in 2012. At that time, there were 1.28 million accountants working in the United States. The number dropped to 1.17 million in 2013 and the accounting employment rate has been slowly increasing for the last seven years. The number is expected to continue to grow in the near future as the country recovers from the recent economic hardship.
(Statista)
California is the US state that employs the most accountants.
In May 2021, the number of accountants working in California totaled 151,320. The state with the next-highest number of employed accountants was New York, with 111,660, followed by Texas, with 104,490. Interestingly, a survey taken at around that time showed that 14% of accounting firms said they were understaffed but reluctant to hire new people.
(Statista)
The District of Columbia has the highest accountant wages.
The accountant pay rate in D.C. is about $110,000 per year. This number includes the salaries of auditors as well as accountants. The state with the next highest accountant wages is New York, at $98,650 annually, followed by New Jersey.
For Chief Financial Officers working for accounting firms, the annual salary can range anywhere from $174,750 to $517,750.
(Statista)
Deloitte employs more accountants than any other firm in the United States.
In 2020, Deloitte—the largest of the Big Four accounting firms worldwide—employed 89,342 people in the United States. According to accounting statistics, no other firm comes close to them in terms of the number of employees. The next largest firm—Ernst and Young—employed about half of that number, at 38,800 people.
To put this in perspective, the smallest of the leading accounting firms in the United States is Cherry Bekaert, which employs just 718 people.
(Statista)
The majority of employees at Deloitte are professional staff accountants.
Deloitte employs a total of 345,370 people worldwide. According to accounting demographics, the majority of those employees are professional staff accountants. In 2021, Deloitte employed 277,317 professional staff, 53,798 administrative staff, and 14,259 partners worldwide.
In 2020, Deloitte employed 5932 partners in the United States, making them the firm with the most partners in the US. PwC is the second-largest firm in terms of partners, with 3800.
(Statista)
Accountant Demographics
What type of person is most likely to be an accountant? What types of degrees do accountants hold, and what kinds of ethnic backgrounds do they have? What is the gender split like at various levels of the accounting profession? To find out, we analyzed some key accounting demographics and learned some interesting results.
The ratio of male to female professional staff accountants in the US is close to 1:1.
In 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, the percentages of male vs female professional staff accountants in the US were 53% male and 47% female. CPA demographics show that for CPAs, the percentages are 58% male and 42% female.
Unfortunately, at the partner level, these percentages shift even more drastically. About 77% of partners at accounting firms in the United States are male, and only 23% are female.
(AICPA Graduates Report)
About 49% of new graduates hired into accounting firms are women.
At the “new hire” level, gender demographics for US accounting firms are more balanced. Approximately 51% of the new graduates (both masters level and bachelors level grads) are men, while 49% are women.
When read in the context that over three-quarters of partners at accounting firms are male, this indicates that accounting industry trends show that there is inequality in accounting that still prevents women from moving up the corporate ladder into positions of power.
(AICPA Graduates Report)
The majority of accountants in the United States are white.
Roughly 71% of professional staff at US accounting firms is white. About 84% of CPAs at accounting firms are white, and 91% of partners at accounting firms are white. The next most-represented ethnic group at accounting firms is people of Asian/Pacific origin, followed by people of Hispanic origin.
(AICPA Graduates Report)
Someone with a master’s degree in accounting is more likely to be hired by a firm than someone with an MBA in accounting.
Looking at accounting trends for new graduate hiring over the past decade, it’s clear that people with master’s degrees in accounting are far more likely to be hired by a US firm than people with MBAs in accounting. Since 2007, the percentage of master’s graduates who get hired by accounting firms has hovered around 80%, while the percentage of people with MBAs in accounting who are hired by firms hovers around 5%.
(AICPA Graduates Report)
Accounting Industry Growth and Job Outlook
It’s well-known that becoming an accountant or CPA is a smart, reasonable career decision. Accounting is a profession with a history that can be traced all the way back to the beginning of civilization. Better than that, accounting will likely be around for many hundreds or thousands of years to come. So what is the immediate job outlook for the accounting industry?
Accounting jobs are projected to grow by 7% between 2020 and 2030.
The national employment of accountants and auditors is projected to grow by 7% between 2020 and 2030. This is on par with the average expected growth for all industries. Around 135,000 job openings per year are anticipated for accountants until 2030, with the majority of those coming from people who exit the workforce.
(BLS)
The median salary for an accountant in the US is $77,250 per year.
In 2021, the average income of accountants and auditors was $34.14 per hour, or about $77,000 per year. This is higher in D.C. where the average accountant salary is over $100,000 per year. Most accountants have an entry-level education of a bachelor’s degree.
(BLS)
Accountants with a CPA credential can make 15% more annually.
Many factors determine a CPA’s salary, including the size of the firm you work for and how much experience you have. CPAs with 20 years of experience can expect to earn around $150,000 per year, while those just entering the field will earn closer to $70,000.
The average CPA hourly rate is slightly higher because CPA certification can increase potential earnings by between 5% and 15%, no matter how much experience a person has.
(U World)
Most accountants are satisfied with their jobs
Job satisfaction is rated according to a few factors. The most important of these are stress levels, upward mobility, and flexibility. Most accountants are happy with their status and rated their jobs as having high upward mobility, an average level of stress, and an average amount of flexibility.
(US News)
FAQ
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Accountant Statistics: The Takeaway
Accounting is a steady profession in a growing field. The job outlook for accounting positions in the United States looks favorable for the next decade, and the average accountant salary is higher than the average national salary. There are clearly some roadblocks for women seeking to become partners in accounting firms, as the gender split becomes more apparent at higher levels of employment.
Four major accounting firms dominate the global industry and make up the bulk of the employment and revenue. Those firms are Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. However, despite the market dominance of these firms, small firms continue to perform well, and the sector is expected to make a strong recovery after economic dips due to the pandemic.
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