Something is happening to the UK accountancy profession, and almost nobody is talking about it. In 2019, there were 43,720 accountancy firms in the UK. By 2025, there were 39,975.
That’s 3,745 firms gone. An 8.6% drop in six years. Almost 1 in 11 firms, vanished. And it isn’t a blip. Firm numbers have fallen or flatlined every single year since 2019.
The numbers, year by year
This is the full run from the ONS business register. One clear peak, then six years of decline.
So where did the firms go?
The ONS data tells us what happened, not why. But the why is well documented, and it points overwhelmingly in one direction: the firms didn’t fail. They were bought.
Private equity has swept through UK accountancy at extraordinary speed. According to Accountancy Europe’s 2025 review, the UK is the most active market on the continent, accounting for over 40% of all PE-backed accountancy deals in Europe. Crowe reports that as many as 20 of the UK’s top 60 firms are now private equity backed, including names like Grant Thornton UK, Evelyn Partners, Azets, Cooper Parry and Xeinadin. And the ICAEW’s 2025 mid-tier research found that roughly a quarter of mid-tier firms are PE-backed, with nearly half completing an acquisition in the past year alone.
Every one of those acquisitions turns multiple firms into one. Xeinadin alone is a consolidation of 122 independent UK and Irish practices. That’s 122 entries on the business register collapsing into a single group.
Retirement is the other pressure. The average age of a UK accountant is 46 according to CCAB figures, and the pipeline behind them thinned badly: ICAEW, ACCA and CIMA enrolled 9,000 fewer students between 2017 and 2022. When a sole practitioner retires without a successor, that firm simply disappears from the register. An ageing profession with fewer new entrants means more of those quiet exits every year, and it’s a big reason 93% of employers report skill shortages in the sector.
What the data rules out is falling demand. The UK’s total business population actually grew over the same period. Fewer firms are serving more businesses than ever.
Why does this matters if you run a firm?
Here’s the part most commentary misses. A shrinking profession is bad news for the industry headline writers, but it’s a genuine opportunity for the firms still standing.
Every firm that closes or gets absorbed leaves clients looking for a new accountant. The average UK firm’s local market has grown from 62 businesses per firm in 2019 to 68 in 2025. And that’s before Making Tax Digital pushes millions of sole traders and landlords towards professional support from 2026 onwards.
Fewer competitors. More potential clients. The firms that are visible when those clients start searching will take a disproportionate share.
The question is whether your firm will be one of them.
See the full picture
We’ve published the complete analysis, including regional breakdowns, interactive charts and our full methodology, in our UK accountancy firm data study. And if you want your firm positioned to win in a shrinking, consolidating market, that’s exactly what we do. Rapport Digital works exclusively with accountants. In fact, the founder of our agency is one.
Get in touch and let’s talk about it.