Research

The State of Accounting 2026: A Data-Rich Report on the U.S. Accounting Profession

By The Ledgerism Editorial Team · The Ledgerism Brief Editorial Team produces original, methodology-disclosed accounting and tax research—data trackers, databases, and reference guides built to be the most-cited source in the field. Every figure is verified against primary sources including FASB, the IRS, the PCAOB, NASBA, the AICPA, and state boards of accountancy.

An annual reference on the firm side of the U.S. accounting industry: industry size and employment, the CPA pipeline, firm rankings and concentration, hiring and offshore staffing, salaries, technology and AI adoption, and the surge in private equity and M&A activity. Every figure is labeled with its year, geography, and source. Last updated 2026-06-29.

Executive summary

• The U.S. accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services industry (NAICS 5412) employed roughly 1.30 million workers across about 137,000 establishments, per U.S. Census Bureau data for NAICS 54121 (most recent compiled figures, drawn from County Business Patterns and Census business statistics).
• There were 653,408 actively licensed CPAs in the United States as of August 28, 2025, reported by NASBA from 53 of 55 licensing jurisdictions, down from 671,855 a year earlier (August 29, 2024).
• The U.S. employed about 1,579,800 accountants and auditors in 2024, with a median annual wage of $81,680 in May 2024 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
• New U.S. CPA Exam candidates fell to 27,994 in 2024, the fewest since NASBA began tracking in 2008, after a one-time surge to 42,626 in 2023 ahead of the CPA Evolution exam change (NASBA, 2024).
• Accounting bachelor’s and master’s degree completions totaled 55,152 in the 2023-24 academic year, down 6.6% year over year, per the AICPA 2025 Trends Report; spring 2025 program enrollment rose 12.4% to 266,506, the highest since 2020.
• Private equity transactions involving CPA and accounting firms rose from 22 in 2023 to 65 in 2024 and 104 in 2025, with CPA Trendlines tracking roughly 250 deals since 2019 (Tier-2 deal tracking).
• Accounting Today’s 2025 Top 100 Firms grew 8.58% in aggregate (covering fiscal 2024), up from 4.89% the prior year, and reported 225 mergers among the group, up from 122 the year before (Tier-2, self-reported firm revenue).
• Enterprise generative-AI adoption among tax firms nearly tripled from 8% in 2024 to 21% in 2025, per the Thomson Reuters Institute 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services Report.

Key findings

1. There were 653,408 actively licensed CPAs in the U.S. as of August 28, 2025, per NASBA (53 of 55 jurisdictions reporting).
2. The CPA population fell from 671,855 on August 29, 2024 to 653,408 on August 28, 2025, a decline of about 2.7% year over year (NASBA).
3. The U.S. had about 1,579,800 accountants and auditors in 2024 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook).
4. The median annual wage for accountants and auditors was $81,680 in May 2024 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS).
5. BLS projects 5% employment growth for accountants and auditors from 2024 to 2034, with about 124,200 openings per year on average over the decade (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
6. New U.S. CPA Exam candidates fell to 27,994 in 2024, the lowest since tracking began in 2008 (NASBA, 2024 Candidate Performance data).
7. A total of 74,165 candidates sat for the CPA Exam in 2024, and 13,070 completed their final section (NASBA, 2024).
8. Accounting degree completions (bachelor’s plus master’s) totaled 55,152 in 2023-24, down 6.6% from 2022-23 (AICPA 2025 Trends Report).
9. Accounting program enrollment reached 266,506 students in spring 2025, up 12.4% year over year and the highest level since 2020 (AICPA 2025 Trends Report).
10. Of 11,985 new graduate hires reported by participating firms in 2024, 75% were accounting majors, meaning 25% came from non-accounting backgrounds (AICPA 2025 Trends Report).
11. Client Advisory Services (CAS) practices reported median revenue growth of 17% in the 2024 AICPA and CPA.com benchmark survey (2023 calendar-year data, 200+ firms).
12. Median CAS net client fees per professional rose to $156,250, up 29% from the prior 2022 survey (AICPA and CPA.com, 2024).
13. Enterprise GenAI adoption among tax firms rose from 8% in 2024 to 21% in 2025 (Thomson Reuters Institute, 2025).
14. Private equity transactions in CPA and accounting firms climbed from 22 (2023) to 65 (2024) to 104 (2025), per CPA Trendlines tracking (Tier-2).
15. Accounting Today’s 2025 Top 100 Firms (fiscal 2024 data) grew 8.58% in aggregate and recorded 225 mergers, up from 122 a year earlier (Tier-2, self-reported).

1. Industry size, revenue, and structure

The accounting profession spans two overlapping populations: the firms that sell accounting, tax, bookkeeping, and payroll services (the supply side of the profession, captured by NAICS 5412), and the broader occupational base of accountants and auditors employed across all industries.

• U.S. Census Bureau business statistics for NAICS 54121 (accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services) count approximately 137,000 establishments employing about 1.30 million workers (compiled from County Business Patterns and Census business data). Geography: United States. Establishment counts in this code reflect physical locations, not enterprises, so the firm count is lower than the establishment count.
• The 2020 U.S. Census reported 120,379 businesses operating within this industry group and a total annual payroll of $83.6 billion. Geography: United States. Year: 2020. This is the most recent fully compiled Census reference point retrieved at primary level.
• The Statistics of U.S. Businesses (SUSB) program, which reports the number of firms, establishments, employment, payroll, and receipts by enterprise size, publishes its most recent figures for reference year 2022 (U.S. Census Bureau, SUSB).

Limitation: An exact 2023 total-receipts figure for NAICS 5412 from the Census Service Annual Survey (SAS) could not be confirmed at the primary source within this research pass; the Census API requires a key and BLS/FRED pages returned access errors. The industry-revenue figures circulating in secondary market-research summaries (for example, roughly $145 billion to $250 billion depending on whether the scope is firms only or the full 54121 universe) vary widely by methodology and are therefore not presented here as verified. Researchers seeking the authoritative receipts figure should pull it directly from the Census SAS or Economic Census tables for NAICS 5412.

What the numbers mean

The establishment base is large and fragmented. Even with the recent wave of consolidation, tens of thousands of small firms make up most of the count, while a small number of large firms hold a disproportionate share of revenue. The occupational base (next section) is roughly the same order of magnitude as the industry workforce, but accountants and auditors also work in corporate, government, and nonprofit settings outside NAICS 5412.

2. Employment, wages, and the occupational base

• The U.S. employed about 1,579,800 accountants and auditors in 2024 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook).
• A separate BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics count put accountants and auditors at about 1.448 million in May 2024, up from 1.435 million in 2023 (BLS OEWS, as reported by CFO Dive). The difference between the ~1.58 million and ~1.45 million figures reflects different BLS series and reference concepts; both are May 2024 vintage.
• The median annual wage for accountants and auditors was $81,680 in May 2024 (BLS, OEWS).
• BLS projects 5% growth in accountant and auditor employment from 2024 to 2034, faster than the all-occupation average, with about 124,200 openings annually on average (BLS).
• The typical entry-level education for the occupation is a bachelor’s degree (BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook).

Wage and staffing pressure

• Annual pay increases for accounting and finance roles ran about 3.5% over the trailing 12 months reported in 2025, down from 4.5% in 2024 (Controllers Council / industry survey, reported by CFO Dive, 2025).
• In a Controllers Council survey conducted May to July 2025, 53% of finance and accounting executives reported no staffing shortages, 33% reported minor shortages, and 10% reported significant shortages, suggesting the acute talent crunch of 2022-2023 has eased.

3. The CPA pipeline: licensure, exam candidates, and graduates

The supply of new CPAs is the most-watched leading indicator for the profession.

• There were 653,408 actively licensed CPAs in the U.S. as of August 28, 2025, from 53 of 55 licensing jurisdictions (NASBA). Hawaii and New Mexico were excluded.
• The prior NASBA count was 671,855 actively licensed CPAs as of August 29, 2024.
• New CPA Exam candidates fell to 27,994 in 2024, the fewest since NASBA began tracking in 2008.
• The 2024 trough partly reflects timing: 42,626 new candidates entered in 2023 to start before the CPA Evolution exam overhaul took effect in January 2024, pulling demand forward.
• A total of 74,165 candidates sat for the CPA Exam in 2024; 13,070 completed their final section, down from a peak of 26,911 completions in 2010 (NASBA).

Degrees and enrollment

• Accounting degree completions (bachelor’s plus master’s) totaled 55,152 in the 2023-24 academic year, down 6.6% from the prior year, with bachelor’s down 3.3% and master’s down about 15% (AICPA 2025 Trends Report).
• In the earlier 2021-22 year, 47,067 students earned a bachelor’s in accounting (down 7.8%) and 18,238 earned a master’s (down 6.4%) (AICPA 2023 Trends Report).
• Accounting program enrollment rose 12.4% to 266,506 students in spring 2025, the highest since 2020, an early sign of stabilization (AICPA 2025 Trends Report).

Licensure reform

By early 2026, 14 states had enacted laws creating alternative pathways that let candidates qualify with a bachelor’s degree plus 120 credit hours and added experience, rather than the traditional 150-hour requirement; more than 40 states are expected to adopt some 120-credit pathway before the end of 2026 (NASBA). The revised Uniform Accountancy Act recognizes three routes to licensure, including a bachelor’s-plus-two-years-experience path.

4. Firm rankings and concentration

Firm-revenue rankings are compiled from firm self-reported figures and are classified Tier-2.

• Accounting Today’s 2025 Top 100 Firms (covering fiscal 2024) grew 8.58% in aggregate, up sharply from 4.89% the prior year (Accounting Today, 2025, Tier-2).
• The 2025 Top 100 list included 16 firms with revenue above $1 billion (Accounting Today, 2025).
• Firms between $100 million and $1 billion grew roughly 13% to 16%, and firms below $100 million grew about 12% to 14% (Accounting Today, 2025).
• The Top 100 group reported 225 mergers in the cycle, up from 122 the year before (Accounting Today, 2025).
• Deloitte recorded $35.7 billion in U.S. revenue for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2025, and $70.5 billion in global revenue for the same period, the first firm to surpass $70 billion globally (Deloitte FY2025 results).
• INSIDE Public Accounting reports that revenue per partner across firms it tracks rose from $1.33 million in 2008 to $2.58 million in 2025, a 94% increase (IPA, 2025, Tier-2).

Note: Big Four U.S. firm-level audit/non-audit splits are not uniformly disclosed; the global Big Four reported combined revenue of about $219 billion in 2025 (Statista compilation of firm announcements, Tier-2). RSM ranked No. 5 on the 2025 Accounting Today Top 100 (RSM US, 2025).

Concentration

The Big Four plus the next tier of national firms hold the majority of large-client audit and advisory revenue, while the long tail of the Top 500 and the tens of thousands of small firms compete on local and mid-market work. The 2024-2025 merger wave (225 deals among the Top 100 alone) is concentrating mid-market revenue into fewer, larger platforms.

5. Hiring, staffing, and the offshore shift

• Of 11,985 new graduate hires reported by participating firms in 2024, 75% were accounting majors and 25% came from non-accounting backgrounds (AICPA 2025 Trends Report).
• Of firms that hired in 2024, 75% expected to hire the same number or more in the current year, and 18% anticipated lower hiring (AICPA 2025 Trends Report).
• The AICPA cautioned that, because of a low firm response rate, the aggregate national number of new graduate hires could not be projected with confidence (AICPA 2025 Trends Report). This is a key data limitation.

Offshore and outsourced staffing

Firms have increasingly turned to offshore and outsourced staffing to fill capacity gaps. Primary-source figures on offshoring specific to U.S. CPA firms are limited; the strongest verifiable anchors come from destination-market and membership data.

• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India reported more than 528,000 active Chartered Accountants and over 407,000 (4.07 lakh) total members as of 2025, the talent pool U.S. firms most commonly tap for offshore accounting work (ICAI, 2025).
• The Philippine outsourcing (BPO) industry generated about $38 billion in 2024 and created about 1.82 million jobs that year, with roughly 6% sector growth forecast for 2025 (Philippine industry reporting, Tier-3).
• A 2024 finance-leader survey found 83% of senior finance leaders reported difficulty hiring qualified accounting staff, up from about 70% two years earlier (Personiv CFO Pulse, 2024, Tier-3).

What the numbers mean

The labor market has loosened from its 2022-2023 peak. AI tooling and offshore/outsourced staffing are absorbing routine preparation and bookkeeping work, which both eases the domestic shortage and shifts entry-level work offshore. The 25% non-accounting share of new graduate hires shows firms broadening their talent funnel beyond traditional accounting majors.

6. Salaries and pricing

Compensation benchmarks below are from Robert Half’s published 2025-2026 salary guidance (Tier-2 vendor survey).

• Staff accountant pay ranged from about $61,000 to $87,750 depending on experience (Robert Half, 2025-2026).
• Senior accountant pay ranged from about $80,000 to $109,000, with a national midpoint of $94,750 (Robert Half, 2025-2026).
• Public accounting starting salaries were expected to rise about 9% in 2025 (Robert Half 2025 Salary Guide, reported by CPA Practice Advisor).
• Across finance and accounting roles broadly, annual pay increases ran about 3.5% over the trailing 12 months in 2025, down from 4.5% in 2024 (industry survey via CFO Dive).

Pricing

• CAS practices reported median net client fees per professional of $156,250, up 29% from the 2022 survey, indicating firms are extracting more revenue per head as they move from hourly billing toward value and subscription pricing (AICPA and CPA.com, 2024).
• CAS practices reported median revenue growth of 17% and projected continued double-digit growth (AICPA and CPA.com, 2024).

7. Technology: AI, automation, and cloud adoption

• Enterprise GenAI adoption among tax firms nearly tripled from 8% in 2024 to 21% in 2025 (Thomson Reuters Institute, 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services Report).
• 71% of tax professionals believed GenAI should be applied to daily work in 2025, up from 52% in 2024 (Thomson Reuters Institute, 2025).
• The most common GenAI use cases reported by tax and accounting professionals were tax research (77%), tax return preparation (63%), and tax advisory (62%) (Thomson Reuters Institute, 2025).
• In the earlier 2024 survey, only 35% of firms planned to invest in GenAI or new AI tools over the next two years, just 14% provided GenAI training, and only 13% used AI chatbots for client questions, showing how fast adoption accelerated into 2025 (Thomson Reuters Institute, 2024 State of Tax Professionals Report).
• Generative AI can cut about 7.5 days off the time needed to complete a monthly close and improve the detail of financial reports by about 12%, per an MIT Sloan/Stanford study cited by CFO Dive (2025).

What the numbers mean

2025 was the inflection year for AI in tax and accounting: sentiment, adoption, and concrete use cases all moved together. The gap between leadership interest (high) and operational readiness (training, written AI policies) remains the main brake. Automation is concentrated first in research, preparation, and close acceleration, the same routine work also being offshored, which compounds the structural shift away from entry-level domestic headcount.

8. M&A and private equity

Private equity entered the U.S. accounting profession in force beginning with TowerBrook’s 2021 investment in EisnerAmper’s non-audit business, the first significant buyout in the sector.

• Private equity transactions involving CPA and accounting firms rose from 22 in 2023 to 65 in 2024 to 104 in 2025 (CPA Trendlines tracking, Tier-2).
• CPA Trendlines was following about 250 transactions since 2019, involving more than 50 distinct PE sponsors, as of its late-2025/early-2026 updates (Tier-2).
• The top three PE sponsors accounted for about 23% of tracked transactions, and the top 10 for just under half (CPA Trendlines, Tier-2).
• New Mountain Capital took a roughly 60% stake in Grant Thornton’s U.S. non-audit business in 2024 (Journal of Accountancy / INSIDE Public Accounting, 2024).
• Hellman & Friedman and Valeas Capital Partners acquired a majority stake in Baker Tilly at a valuation above $2 billion, described as the largest U.S. accounting firm to take outside capital at the time (industry reporting, 2024).
• Among the Top 100 firms, 225 mergers were reported in the 2025 cycle, up from 122 the prior year (Accounting Today, 2025, Tier-2).

Note: Deal-count series differ slightly by tracker because of differing definitions of a qualifying “PE transaction” (platform deals, add-ons, minority stakes). The CPA Trendlines series is the most consistently published; figures above are stated on that basis.

Original synthesis

Insight 1: CPA Pipeline Pressure Index (PPI)

Logic: Ratio of new CPA Exam candidates to the actively licensed CPA base, expressed per 10,000 licensees, to size annual replenishment against the standing population.
– 2024: 27,994 new candidates / 671,855 licensees (Aug 2024) = about 417 new candidates per 10,000 CPAs.
– 2023: 42,626 new candidates / standing base = a markedly higher replenishment rate, distorted by the pre-CPA-Evolution rush.
Inputs: NASBA candidate counts (2023, 2024); NASBA licensee counts (2024, 2025). Limitation: New candidates are not the same as new licensees; many candidates take years to complete and license, so this is a leading directional indicator, not a flow-balance. The single-year 2024 reading is depressed by the 2023 pull-forward.

Insight 2: Consolidation Velocity

Logic: Combine the Top 100 merger count with the PE deal series to gauge how fast ownership and scale are concentrating.
– Top 100 mergers more than doubled in one cycle (122 to 225).
– PE deals nearly tripled across 2023-2025 (22 to 104).
Derived reading: Both private equity capital and intra-profession M&A accelerated at roughly 2x-3x in a single year, the fastest structural reshaping of firm ownership in the profession’s modern history. Inputs: Accounting Today Top 100 (2025); CPA Trendlines PE tracking. Limitation: Both are Tier-2; merger and PE-deal definitions overlap (some Top 100 mergers are PE add-ons), so the two series should not be summed.

Insight 3: Automation-Offshore Substitution Signal

Logic: Triangulate the loosening domestic labor market against the simultaneous rise of AI adoption and offshore capacity to show entry-level work is being substituted rather than simply unfilled.
– Reported staffing shortages eased (only 10% “significant” in mid-2025 vs. 83% of leaders reporting hiring difficulty in 2024).
– Tax-firm GenAI adoption tripled (8% to 21%) while offshore destination pools (528,000+ Indian CAs) remained large.
Derived reading: The shortage narrative is shifting from “cannot find people” to “need fewer domestic entry-level people,” because AI and offshore staffing absorb routine preparation and bookkeeping. Inputs: Controllers Council / Personiv surveys; Thomson Reuters 2024-2025; ICAI 2025. Limitation: Surveys use different populations and questions; this is a directional synthesis, not a measured substitution rate.

Charts to create

1. CPA population vs. new exam candidates, 2008-2025. Data: NASBA licensee counts and annual new-candidate counts. Insight: the standing CPA base is large but new entry has collapsed to a 2008-era low. Citation-worthy because it visualizes the pipeline crisis in one frame.
2. Accounting degree completions and enrollment, 2021-22 to spring 2025. Data: AICPA Trends Reports. Insight: completions still falling while enrollment rebounds 12.4%, signaling a turning point. Citation-worthy as the clearest leading indicator of recovery.
3. PE deals and Top 100 mergers by year, 2021-2025. Data: CPA Trendlines, Accounting Today. Insight: the 2x-3x consolidation surge. Citation-worthy for M&A and PE reporting.
4. Tax-firm GenAI adoption 2024 vs. 2025 with use-case bars. Data: Thomson Reuters Institute. Insight: the adoption inflection and where AI lands first (research, prep, advisory).
5. Salary bands by role, 2025-2026. Data: Robert Half. Insight: midpoints and ranges for staff vs. senior accountants. Citation-worthy for compensation benchmarking.

Methodology

Source selection prioritized Tier-1 primary sources: U.S. Census Bureau (business statistics, County Business Patterns, SUSB), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Occupational Outlook Handbook and Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics), AICPA & CIMA (Trends Report), NASBA (licensee and CPA Exam candidate data), CPA.com/AICPA PCPS (CAS Benchmark Survey), and the Thomson Reuters Institute. Tier-2 sources (Accounting Today Top 100, INSIDE Public Accounting, Robert Half, CPA Trendlines) were used for firm-revenue rankings, compensation, and PE/M&A deal counts, and are labeled as self-reported or vendor-survey data throughout.

Inclusion rules: every statistic carries an explicit year/period and a U.S. geography unless stated otherwise (ICAI and Philippine BPO figures are foreign and labeled). Figures that could not be confirmed at a primary or clearly-sourced level were excluded, including secondary market-research estimates of total NAICS 5412 industry revenue, which varied too widely by methodology to present as verified.

Conflict handling: where two BLS series gave different accountant/auditor counts (~1.58 million OOH vs. ~1.45 million OEWS for 2024), both are presented with their series labels rather than averaged. Where deal-count trackers differed, the consistently published CPA Trendlines series is used and the definitional caveat is stated.

Derived figures: the Pipeline Pressure Index, Consolidation Velocity, and Automation-Offshore Substitution Signal are original syntheses; their formulas, inputs, and limitations are stated in the synthesis section.

Data limitations: BLS, the Census data API, and FRED returned access errors (HTTP 403 or key-required) during this pass, so several federal figures were sourced from the agencies’ own published summaries and from reputable reporting that cites them directly; the exact 2023 SAS total-receipts figure for NAICS 5412 remains a known gap. The AICPA cautioned its aggregate national hiring number is not projectable due to low firm response. Date of last update: 2026-06-29.

Source quality ranking

Tier-1 (primary: government, official bodies, academic):
– U.S. Census Bureau (business statistics, CBP, SUSB)
– U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OOH, OEWS)
– AICPA & CIMA (2023 and 2025 Trends Reports)
– NASBA (CPA licensee counts, CPA Exam candidate data, licensure pathways)
– CPA.com / AICPA PCPS (2024 CAS Benchmark Survey)
– Thomson Reuters Institute (2024 and 2025 reports; survey-based but methodology disclosed)

Tier-2 (credible market research, self-reported firm/company data):
– Accounting Today Top 100 Firms (self-reported firm revenue)
– INSIDE Public Accounting Top 500 (self-reported firm revenue)
– Robert Half Salary Guide (vendor compensation survey)
– CPA Trendlines (PE deal tracking)
– Deloitte FY2025 results (audited company financials, but single-firm self-report for ranking context)

Tier-3 (reputable journalism and expert commentary, used for context only):
– Journal of Accountancy, CFO Dive, CPA Practice Advisor, Going Concern
– Personiv CFO Pulse and Controllers Council surveys (vendor surveys)
– Philippine BPO industry reporting

Excluded and why:
– Secondary total industry-revenue estimates for NAICS 5412 (e.g., IBISWorld-style figures): excluded as not verifiable at primary level and inconsistent across methodologies.
– Statista compilation pages: used only as pointers; underlying primary figures were verified or excluded.

Citation format (selected)

• Source: National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, “How Many CPAs Are There?”, as of August 28, 2025.
• Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Accountants and Auditors, 2024 employment and May 2024 median wage.
• Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2024.
• Source: AICPA & CIMA, 2025 Trends Report, accounting degrees and enrollment, 2023-24 and spring 2025.
• Source: NASBA, 2024 CPA Exam candidate data.
• Source: AICPA and CPA.com, 2024 Client Advisory Services Benchmark Survey (2023 calendar-year data).
• Source: Thomson Reuters Institute, 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services Report.
• Source: Accounting Today, 2025 Top 100 Firms (fiscal 2024 data).
• Source: CPA Trendlines, Private Equity in CPA and Accounting Firms deal tracker, 2025-2026 updates.
• Source: Robert Half, 2025-2026 Salary Guide for Finance and Accounting.

Journalist-friendly additions

Most quotable statistics

• The U.S. had 653,408 actively licensed CPAs as of August 28, 2025, down from 671,855 a year earlier (NASBA).
• New CPA Exam candidates fell to 27,994 in 2024, the fewest since tracking began in 2008 (NASBA).
• Private equity deals in accounting firms rose from 22 in 2023 to 104 in 2025 (CPA Trendlines).
• Tax-firm GenAI adoption nearly tripled from 8% in 2024 to 21% in 2025 (Thomson Reuters Institute).
• The median accountant and auditor wage was $81,680 in May 2024 (BLS).

Data limitations

• Aggregate national firm hiring is not projectable from the AICPA survey because of low firm response.
• Exact 2023 NAICS 5412 total industry receipts could not be confirmed at primary source in this pass.
• Two BLS series give different 2024 accountant counts (~1.58M and ~1.45M); both are reported.
• Firm-revenue rankings are self-reported (Tier-2).
• PE deal counts vary by tracker definition.

Downloadable dataset, recommended fields

metric_name, value, unit, year_or_period, geography, source_organization, source_tier, source_url, methodology_note, limitation_flag, last_verified_date.

Press summary (about 150 words)

The State of Accounting 2026 documents a profession reshaping itself on two fronts. The CPA pipeline remains under pressure: NASBA counted 653,408 actively licensed CPAs as of August 2025, down from 671,855 a year earlier, and new CPA Exam candidates fell to 27,994 in 2024, the fewest since 2008. Early recovery signals exist, with accounting program enrollment up 12.4% to 266,506 in spring 2025. At the same time, ownership is consolidating fast: private equity deals in accounting firms rose from 22 in 2023 to 104 in 2025, and the Accounting Today Top 100 reported 225 mergers in one cycle. Technology is the third force, with tax-firm generative-AI adoption nearly tripling from 8% to 21% between 2024 and 2025. The median accountant and auditor earned $81,680 in May 2024. All figures are sourced to Census, BLS, AICPA, NASBA, CPA.com, Thomson Reuters, and industry trackers.

Suggested headlines

1. Accounting 2026: CPA Ranks Shrink to 653,408 as New Exam Candidates Hit a 2008 Low
2. Private Equity’s Accounting Land Grab: Firm Deals Jump from 22 to 104 in Two Years
3. The AI Tipping Point in Tax: GenAI Adoption Nearly Triples to 21% in 2025
4. Fewer New CPAs, More Mergers: The State of the U.S. Accounting Profession in 2026
5. Accounting’s Recovery Signal: Program Enrollment Climbs 12.4% Even as Degrees Fall

FAQs

1. How many licensed CPAs are in the U.S.? 653,408 as of August 28, 2025 (NASBA, 53 of 55 jurisdictions).
2. How many accountants and auditors work in the U.S.? About 1,579,800 in 2024 (BLS OOH); a separate BLS series puts it near 1.45 million for May 2024.
3. What is the median accountant salary? $81,680 for accountants and auditors in May 2024 (BLS).
4. How many new CPA Exam candidates were there in 2024? 27,994, the fewest since 2008 (NASBA).
5. Is the accounting talent shortage easing? Largely yes; only 10% of finance executives reported significant shortages in a mid-2025 survey, down from acute 2022-2023 levels.
6. How fast is AI adoption growing in tax firms? Enterprise GenAI adoption rose from 8% in 2024 to 21% in 2025 (Thomson Reuters Institute).
7. How active is private equity in accounting? PE deals rose from 22 (2023) to 65 (2024) to 104 (2025), with ~250 tracked since 2019 (CPA Trendlines).
8. How fast are top firms growing? Accounting Today’s 2025 Top 100 grew 8.58% in aggregate (fiscal 2024 data, self-reported).
9. What does a senior accountant earn? About $80,000 to $109,000, midpoint $94,750 (Robert Half 2025-2026).
10. How many accounting degrees are awarded? 55,152 bachelor’s plus master’s in 2023-24, down 6.6% year over year (AICPA).

Sources

1. NASBA, “How Many CPAs Are There?” https://nasba.org/licensure/howmanycpas/
2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Accountants and Auditors. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/accountants-and-auditors.htm
3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS, Accounting/Tax/Bookkeeping/Payroll (NAICS 541200). https://www.bls.gov/oes/2024/may/naics4_541200.htm
4. AICPA & CIMA, “Pool of Accounting Graduates Continues to Shrink, AICPA Report Finds.” https://www.aicpa-cima.com/news/article/pool-of-accounting-graduates-continues-to-shrink-in-u-s-aicpa-report-finds
5. AICPA & CIMA, “Accounting Firms Report Strong Hiring Outlook.” https://www.aicpa-cima.com/news/article/accounting-firms-report-strong-hiring-outlook-aicpa-report-finds
6. Journal of Accountancy, “The accounting graduate pipeline: Where do things stand?” (Oct 2025). https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2025/oct/the-accounting-graduate-pipeline-where-do-things-stand/
7. NASBA, “New CPA Licensure Pathways and CPA Mobility.” https://nasba.org/blog/2025/12/23/new-cpa-licensure-pathways-and-cpa-mobility/
8. NASBA, “2024 Candidate Performance Book.” https://nasba.org/blog/2025/08/18/explore-the-numbers-behind-cpa-exam-success-2024-nasba-report-released/
9. AICPA and CPA.com, 2024 CAS Benchmark Survey. https://www.cpa.com/news/aicpa-and-cpacom-benchmark-survey-client-advisory-services-cas-practices-report-17-growth
10. AICPA and CPA.com, 2024 CAS Benchmark Survey (PDF). https://www.cpa.com/sites/cpa/files/2024-12/2024-CAS-Benchmark-Survey.pdf
11. Thomson Reuters, “Generative AI Adoption Nearly Doubles as Professional Services Reach Crossroads” (Apr 2025). https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/press-releases/2025/april/from-incubation-to-integration-generative-ai-adoption-nearly-doubles-as-professional-services-reach-crossroads
12. Thomson Reuters, 2025 Generative AI in Professional Services Report (PDF). https://www.thomsonreuters.com/content/dam/ewp-m/documents/thomsonreuters/en/pdf/reports/2025-generative-ai-in-professional-services-report-tr5433489-rgb.pdf
13. Thomson Reuters Institute, 2024 State of Tax Professionals Report (PDF). https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/2024-State-of-Tax-Professionals-Report.pdf
14. CPA Trendlines, “Cornerstone DealFlow Timeline: Private Equity Investments in CPA and Accounting Firms 2020-2025.” https://cpatrendlines.com/2025/11/18/cornerstone-dealflow-timeline-private-equity-investments-in-cpa-and-accounting-firms-2020-2025/
15. Journal of Accountancy, “Grant Thornton deal continues the private-equity investment trend” (Mar 2024). https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2024/mar/grant-thornton-deal-continues-the-private-equity-investment-trend/
16. INSIDE Public Accounting, Top 500 Firms. https://insidepublicaccounting.com/ipa-top-500-firms/
17. INSIDE Public Accounting, “IPA Data Dive: Revenue Per Partner Trends.” https://insidepublicaccounting.com/2026/04/29/ipa-revenue-per-partner-trends/
18. Accounting Today, “Inside the 2025 Top 100 Accounting Firms.” https://www.accountingtoday.com/list/inside-the-2025-top-100-accounting-firms
19. Robert Half, 2026 Finance and Accounting Salary Guide. https://www.roberthalf.com/us/en/insights/salary-guide/finance-and-accounting
20. CPA Practice Advisor, “Public Accounting Starting Salaries Expected to Rise About 9% in 2025.” https://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/2024/10/08/robert-half-salary-guide-2025/151802/
21. CFO Dive, “Accounting talent shortage eases as layoff fears creep up.” https://www.cfodive.com/news/accounting-talent-shortage-shows-signs-easing-layoffs-ai/758799/
22. U.S. Census Bureau, Statistics of U.S. Businesses (2022). https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2022/econ/susb/2022-susb-annual.html
23. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns. https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/cbp.html
24. Deloitte, FY2025 Global Revenue Announcement. https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/about/press-room/global-revenue-announcement.html

Related research

More original, sourced datasets from The Ledgerism Brief:

• CPA Industry Report + Shortage Index — Workforce, salary, firms, and the CPA shortage.
• The Big Four Report — Revenue, headcount, and audit market share.
• AI in Accounting Report — Adoption rates and the Automation Index.
• Accounting Salary Database — Pay by state, metro, role, and experience.
• FASB Standards Report — ASUs issued and adoption of major standards.
• SEC Restatement Report — Restatements by year, type, and cause.