Combined revenue of EY worldwide by service line 2009-2021

The combined worldwide revenue of accounting firm, Ernst and Young (EY), reached a record 40 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 with more than one third of that figure being generated from its assurance services. The firm’s strategy and transactions segment had the biggest year-on-year growth, increasing by 14.6 percent between 2020 and 2021.

Advisory services help to strengthen EY

EY reported growth across all four of its service lines in 2021, which led to the overall global revenue of the firm increasing by around 2.8 billion U.S dollars on the previous year. The firm’s assurance services package – providing clients with support in the areas of auditing and financial accounting – remains a key focus and has generated the most income for a number of years. However, EY’s advisory line continues to attract strong demand from clients and revenue from the service has approximately doubled since 2012. One reason for this could be that developments in digital technology are prompting more and more clients to seek advice on topics such as data analytics and cybersecurity, helping them to build their company for the future.

The titans of the accounting world

EY is among the Big Four accounting firms worldwide – third after PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Deloitte in terms of revenue. EY’s record income contributed to the increase in combined revenue of the Big Four. Proposals and recommendations have been discussed in order to break up the market dominance of the four accounting firms and create competition within the sector, but for the time being the Big Four will continue to audit the financial records of the largest public companies worldwide.