IAB World Survey 2026 key figures

Networks

Growth remained positive at 3% for the 34 global accountancy networks that were included in this year’s World Survey. It represented a slight slowdown from last year, which saw 7% growth. Total fee income for networks this year was $307,220.8m, up from $297,193.1m last year.

Growth for the Big Four remained steady at 4%, the same as the reported growth for last year.

Excluding the Big Four, the other 30 networks collectively only reported a 2% growth in fee income.

For staff, networks reported positive growth of just 1%. This remained at 1% when excluding the Big Four.

Associations

This year, 20 associations took part in the World Survey, achieving a collective 10% growth. While this is slightly below the growth rate achieved in last year’s survey (13%), it marks the second year in a row that the associations have attained a higher growth rate than the networks. Total fee income for associations was $40,947.19m compared to $37,185.30m reported in last year’s World Survey.

Again, staff growth was far more positive for associations than it was for networks this year, at 8%. This was slightly down on last year’s survey, where associations reported a 9% growth in staff numbers.

Networks

This year, all four service lines saw positive growth, though at a lower rate than was reported in last year’s survey, with none of the service lines achieving double-digit growth this year. Audit and Assurance reported the highest growth (5%), followed by Advisory (3%), Tax (2%) and finally Accounting services (1%).

Advisory services had the highest fee income, totalling $120,603.0m, with Deloitte leading the way by some margin, declaring $43,710.0m in fee income for this service line. Outside of the Big Four, Grant Thornton led the advisory table with $2,964.2m in reported fee income, followed closely by RSM International ($2,881.0m) and BDO ($2,366.5m).

The networks reported a combined $97,806.4m for Audit and Assurance services, with PwC leading with $19,938.8m. Outside of the Big Four, BDO reported the highest fee income from this service line at $4,302.8m, followed by Grant Thornton at $3,811.1m.

The combined fee income attributed to tax services was $67,861.6m, up 2% from the $66,689.9m reported last year. Outside of the Big Four, BDO reported the highest fee income from tax services at $2,474.1m, followed closely by RSM international at $2,243.5m.

For Accounting services, ETL Global topped the table with fee income of $1,902.8m, up 12% from last year, followed closely by BDO at $1,613.5m.

Associations

Across the board, associations had a higher growth rate than networks. Associations achieved double digit growth for all service lines except Audit and Assurance (6%), with the highest collective growth seen in tax services (14%), followed by advisory (12%) and then accounting services (10%).

However, while audit and assurance had the lowest growth rate of the four service lines, it saw the highest fee income at $12,587.9m, followed by Tax services at $11,086.8m, Accounting services at $7,670.4 and Advisory services (6,763.6m).

Networks

There was positive growth in most regions for the networks this year, the exception being North America. However, the decline in this region may be due to the changing of reporting methods for some networks.

The Middle East saw the highest growth (21%), followed by Africa (17%), and then Europe (13%).

In terms of revenue, North America had the highest fee income ($37,856.0m) followed by Europe ($30,823.2m), Asia-Pacific ($13,210.3m), Latin America ($2,219.2m), the Middle East ($1,500.2m) and Africa ($1,142.9m).​​​​​​​

Associations

Positive growth was seen across the regions for associations, with the exception of Africa which reported a 2% year-on-year decrease.
Latin America saw the largest growth (12%), followed by North America (11%), and Europe (10%).

In terms of revenue, North America still reported the highest fee income $37,856.0m), followed by Europe ($13,911.7m), Asia Pacific ($3,685.3m), Latin America ($684.2m), the Middle East ($406.5m) and Africa ($262.14m).

The Big Four saw a 4% increase in global fee income, taking their combined total to $220,468m, up from $212,181m last year. The growth rate remained at 4%, the same as last year.

The highest growth this year was seen in the Americas, with a 5% increase taking the total fee income for the region to $105,015m, compared to $100,035m last year. Deloitte took the top position for the region again, achieving fee income of $38,800m, up from $36,400m last year, representing 7% growth.

EMEA followed the Americas in terms of growth, with a 4% increase resulting in total fee income of $83,358m, up from $80,143m last year. PwC took the top spot in this region again with fee income of $22,548m, though EY achieved the highest year-on-year growth at 6%.

The Asia-Pacific region saw a return to growth, though only just, at 1%, after last year’s decrease in total fee income. Deloitte and KPMG both saw 3% growth in the region, and Deloitte led the way in fee income at $9,800m. However, PwC experienced a 5% decrease in fee income in the region this year.’
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Movement in staff figures was very similar across all regions, with the combined staff figures achieving a total 1% growth. While Deloitte and EY both saw 3% growth overall, KPMG reported that the overall staff number had remained stable compared to last year (0% growth) and PwC reported a 2% overall decrease in staff, with a decrease in headcount in each region.