Accountancy by numbers

January 2025


The latest report from the FRC provides a ‘state of the profession’ update Membership of the accountancy bodies based in the UK and Republic of Ireland (ROI) continues to grow, and now stands at over one million worldwide, according to the FRC’s Key Facts and Trends report.

The seven bodies in the report have over 405,000 members in the UK and ROI, and more than 616,000 additional members worldwide. The growth in membership between 2022 and 2023 was 1.9% in the UK and ROI, and 1.7% worldwide.


However, the decline in student numbers that we saw in 2022 in the UK and ROI has continued for 2023. Between 2022 and 2023 student numbers in the UK and ROI fell by 0.2%, but increased by 0.1% worldwide.


This compares with falls of 3.5% and 2% respectively for 2022. In number terms that means there are 155,000 students studying accountancy in the UK and ROI, and over 580,000 worldwide.


In total, 97% of AIA and 84% of ACCA students were based outside the UK and ROI. In contrast, ICAS and CAI had less than 1% of their students based outside the UK and ROI. In total, 27% of students from the accountancy bodies were studying in the UK and ROI.
ICAEW, CAI and ICAS had more than 85% of their students complete their training in four years or less. Only 12%, 15% and 15% of their students were registered for more than four years as at 31 December 2023.


Where you are working


The industry and commerce sector employs the highest average percentage of members (54%) and employs the highest average percentage of students (35%) across the accountancy bodies. AIA and CIMA members in the industry and commerce sector make up 87% and 71% of their respective total membership.

Some 86%, 79% and 75% of ICAS, CAI and ICAEW students respectively are working in practice. This is in contrast to the other bodies, where only 3% or less of their students are working in practice.

The total number of students who became members worldwide fell by 5.9% in 2023, compared to a fall of 0.8% in 2022 and an increase of 4.5% in 2021.

Matter of degree

You really don’t need a degree to study for a professional accountancy qualification, as the stats show. While 91% of ICAS and CAI PQs have a degree, in stark contrast just 23% of ACCA and 35% of CIPFA trainees start their accountancy studies with one.

Women in accountancy

Since 2019 all the accountancy bodies (except CIMA, which remains at a constant 36%) have increased their percentage of female members worldwide. AIA experienced the largest increase of two percentage points in this period, mainly down to a 5.4% increase this past year. At 49%, ACCA now has the highest percentage of female members of all the accountancy bodies by some way. ICAEW has the lowest percentage at 32%. For 2023, the overall percentage of female members worldwide was 40%.

Meanwhile, the overall percentage of female students is 56%, helped by ACCA with 59% of its students being female (the highest). ICAS has the distinction of having the lowest percentage of female students. The worry will be the big fall year-on-year from 43% to 37%.

Matter of age

There were significant differences in the age profiles of the worldwide members of the seven accountancy bodies in 2023. CAI, ACCA and ICAS had relatively high proportions of members under the age of 35 at 26%, 23% and 23% respectively, while CIPFA had the largest percentage of members aged 45 and over at 75%, followed by CIMA, ICAEW and AIA at 62%, 59% and 59% respectively.

The largest proportion of worldwide members were aged between 35 and 44 in 2023, accounting for 28% of the total populations, followed by members aged 45 to 54, making up 24% of the total population.

In 2023, 76% of all students from the seven accountancy bodies were aged 34 or under, compared with 78% in 2019.

ICAEW, ICAS and CAI had the highest percentage of students aged 34 or under, at 97%, 97%, and 89% respectively. In comparison for CIPFA, of those declaring their age (33% didn’t), the largest proportion of students were aged 35 (over 49%).

Show us the money

Annual income generated from all members and students remains relatively stable for all the bodies. ACCA continues to have the highest income generated out of the seven bodies at £246m in 2023, the largest increase among the seven (at 11.8% for 2023).

However, it is ICAS that earns the highest average income per member and student population, at £707.