Number of Accounting Firms in France: 30,800 in 2026
France has 30,800 accounting firms in business in November 2026, counting each office. The Order of chartered accountants lists 21,288 registered structures: one company can have several offices. 81 in 100 are independent firms, outside any network and any grouping.
France has about 30,800 accounting firms in business in November 2026, according to Scalon's count. Each office where a structure registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables (France's professional body for chartered accountants, called "the Order" below) operates counts as one: a chartered accountant (expert-comptable) in their own name, a company, or a management and accounting association. This is an estimate: between 28,100 and 33,400. The Order counts differently: 21,288 registered companies and associations and 22,685 chartered accountants in 2025. It does not publish a number of offices: its own directory lists 29,923 office records, 28,911 of them still open in the register. The Sirene register (the French government's register of businesses and their locations) lists 41,959 active establishments in France under the accounting activities code. About 10,300 are not firms: unregistered bookkeepers, holding companies, statutory auditors alone, closed structures. 81 offices in 100 belong to an independent firm, outside any brand network, any grouping of firms and any management association. 64 in 100 are even single-office firms.
Get the list of the 30,800 accounting firms in France, with the contact details available.
Get the full listPublished on November 9, 2026
In this article
- How many accounting firms are there, depending on your question?
- How many accounting firms are there in France?
- What each figure about the profession really counts
- Market vocabulary, explained simply
- Independents, networks or management associations: who runs the firms?
- How big are the firms?
- How do you build a prospecting file of accounting firms?
- Which clients and services do firms highlight?
- Where are the accounting firms?
- Is the market moving?
- How we count firms: NAF code, unit and edition date
- How do you use these figures for market research?
- Frequently asked questions about accounting firms
- Key takeaways
How many accounting firms are there, depending on your question?#
| Question | Figure | What it counts | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| How many firm offices in business? | 30,800 | Each office where a structure registered with the Order operates | Scalon, November 2026 |
| How many structures registered with the Order? | 21,288 | Accounting companies and associations, one office or several | Order, 2025 |
| How many chartered accountants? | 22,685 | People registered on the Order's roll | Order, 2025 |
| How many establishments under code 69.20Z? | 41,959 | Active establishments in France, firms or not | Sirene, September 24, 2026 |
| How many businesses in the sector? | 21,690 | Businesses in accounting activities | Insee, 2021 data |
| How many offices of independent firms? | about 24,900 | 81% of 30,800, outside any network, group, grouping and management association | Scalon, November 2026 |
| How many offices of networks, groupings and management associations? | about 5,900 | The rest of the 30,800 | Scalon, November 2026 |
| How many employees in the firms? | about 190,000 | Employees of the firms | Order, 2026 |
The right answer depends on your question. To size a market of suppliers (software, insurance, premises), the benchmark is 30,800 offices. To count decision makers, count distinct firms: the Order's directory identifies 22,990 firms outside any brand network and any management association, with one or several offices, plus 40 brand networks and groups and the management associations. This count still includes members of groupings of firms. The Order counts 21,288 companies and associations: chartered accountants who practice in their own name are not in it.
How many accounting firms are there in France?#
There is no single number; there are several. According to the Ordre des experts-comptables, 21,288 accounting companies and associations are registered in 2025: this is the figure closest to the word "firm." Insee (France's national statistics office) counted 21,690 businesses in accounting activities in 2021.
Scalon's count gives 30,800 firms in business in November 2026. It counts offices (establishments), not companies: the head office and each secondary office of a firm registered with the Order. It starts from the 41,959 active establishments of the Sirene register of September 24, 2026 under code 69.20Z, cross-checked with the Order's directory: 29,923 office records, 28,911 of which match an office that is still open (1,012 have only a closed establishment left). It is then checked on 100 randomly drawn locations. Our estimate, 30,766 before rounding, is 1,855 above those 28,911 records: this gap is a balance, because the calculation removes duplicates and adds offices found in the register that have no record of their own in the directory.
These two figures cannot be compared. The first counts companies and associations registered with the Order, according to the 2025 Observatoire de la profession comptable; the previous edition counted 19,490. The second counts all the businesses of an industry, without telling registered firms from the others.
What each figure about the profession really counts#
Several figures circulate about the profession. Each one measures a different object.
- Accounting companies registered with the Order: 21,288 in 2025. This is the count closest to a number of firms. The figure comes from the 2025 Observatoire de la profession comptable of the Conseil national de l'Ordre; it also counts management and accounting associations. The previous edition gave 19,490.
- Registered chartered accountants: 22,685 in 2025. These are people, not firms. The Order's website also shows 22,194 chartered accountants, with no year, a figure repeated in our guide to the NAF code of a chartered accountant: it is not the 2025 edition of the Observatoire, which we use. They are on the Order's roll, the profession's official list. The figure of 21,611, still repeated by several sites and presented by them as a 2025 or 2026 figure, is from the previous edition (2022-2023 data).
- Businesses in accounting activities: 21,690 in 2021. This figure comes from Insee's sector 692 sheet, published in March 2024. The sheet does not separate firms registered with the Order from the other businesses of the sector. It is the latest edition: the one for 2022 data was not published, because of the switch to the new classification. Not to be confused with the number of businesses in France.
- Establishments under the accounting activities code: 41,959. Active establishments in France in the Sirene register of September 24, 2026 (42,094 with foreign ones), code 69.20Z. The code states the declared activity, not registration with the Order.
- Accounting firms in business: 30,800. Scalon's count: an office where a structure registered with the Order operates counts as one.
The gap between these figures is not an error. It comes from the object counted (company, person or business) and from the date.
From the register to the firms: the bridge, figure by figure#
Getting from the register to the firms takes a few lines. Nearly one establishment in four under the code is not a firm; others duplicate an establishment at the same location; conversely, some Order records have no establishment under this code.
| Line | Establishments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Active 69.20Z establishments in France | 41,959 | 100% |
| of which firm offices in business (estimated) | 29,917 | 71.3% |
| of which establishments at the same location as another already counted | 1,786 | 4.3% |
| of which non-firms (estimated) | 10,256 | 24.4% |
| Firm offices missing from code 69.20Z (Order records with no active establishment found in the register) | + 850 | — |
| Total firms | 30,800 (rounded from 30,766) | — |
Among 34 locations under the code drawn with no link to the Order, Scalon found 7 registered firms, 6 unregistered bookkeepers, 12 other activities (holding companies, statutory auditors alone…), 8 not found and 1 duplicate.
What the other sources say
Several online directories announce between 31,300 and 38,000 "firms"; one of them cites 32,609. Another counts 27,294 firms registered on the Order's roll, from the Order's directory cross-checked with the registers: it is the unit closest to ours. Our estimate exceeds this figure by 3,472. The two files were not matched office by office: the share of this gap due to secondary offices is not measured.
A study drawn from Sirene announces 34,180 "active firms" in April 2026. These are businesses under the code, counted at the company level: secondary establishments are not counted, and nothing says they are registered with the Order.
Some sites date the figures 21,611 and 19,490 "2026." They are from the Order's previous edition. These figures do not measure the same thing as ours: they do not contradict each other, they answer other questions.
Market vocabulary, explained simply#
| Term | Plain definition |
|---|---|
| Management and accounting association (AGC) | An association that practices chartered accounting without being a member of the Order, but is registered on its roll (article 7 ter of the 1945 ordinance). The Cerfrance network is the best-known example. |
| Secondary office | A premises of an accounting company other than its head office. Each office counts as one firm in this study. |
| Independent firm | In this study: outside any brand network, outside any group, outside any grouping of firms and outside any management association. |
The word "independent" is confusing. Here, it has its commercial meaning: a firm that depends on no brand network, no group, no grouping of firms and no management association. It can have several offices under its own name.
The other terms of the trade
| Term | Plain definition |
|---|---|
| Chartered accountant (expert-comptable) | A professional registered on the Order's roll, authorized, along with management and accounting associations, to keep, review and prepare their clients' accounts. They practice in their own name or within a company. |
| Accounting company (société d'expertise comptable) | A company registered with the Order, which practices the profession with one or several chartered accountants. It can have a head office and secondary offices. |
| Approved management center or body | A body that helps its members with their tax obligations. It does not keep their accounts: it is not counted. |
| Statutory auditor (commissaire aux comptes) | A different profession: it certifies accounts, it does not keep them. It has 11,850 members in 2025, according to the CNCC (the national body of statutory auditors). |
Independents, networks or management associations: who runs the firms?#
81% of offices are independent firms: no brand network, no group, no grouping of firms, no management association. Before removing members of groupings, 88% of offices are outside any brand network and any management association.
| Type of office | Estimated offices | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Independent single-office firms | about 19,600 | 63.7% |
| Independent multi-office firms | about 5,300 | 17.3% |
| Members of a grouping of independent firms | about 2,200 | 7.3% |
| Brand networks and groups | about 2,700 | 8.7% |
| Management associations outside any brand | about 1,000 | 3.1% |
| Total | 30,800 | 100% |
The shares are measured on the 28,911 open offices of the Order's directory, then applied to the total; they are calculated without intermediate rounding and then rounded separately, and their displayed sum is 100.1%. 8.7% of offices carry one of the 40 network or group brands found (45 searched), or 2,510 offices. 3.1% are management and accounting associations outside any brand (903 offices); in all, 1,243 management association offices exist, 228 of them under the Cerfrance name.
A measured caveat. Scalon read the websites of 166 independent single-office firms: 13 (7.8%) say they belong to a grouping of independent firms, such as Cabex, Crowe, Audecia or CAPEC. Among the sites of 72 multi-office firms, 7 (9.7%) say so (Walter France, Synerga, PrimeGlobal…). In practice: to sell to these firms, tell the company apart from its offices and check who makes purchasing decisions.
The most direct target: one firm, one office, one chartered accountant#
Before removing members of groupings, 16,959 offices in the directory (58.7% of the 28,911 open offices) are outside any brand network and any management association, with a single office per firm and a single registered chartered accountant. After applying the grouping rate measured on the websites, this target is estimated at about 16,600 offices across the whole market.
Independents, networks: the map changes from one region to another#
In Île-de-France, 97.7% of offices are outside any brand network and any management association; 84.8% are also run by a single-office firm. These shares still include members of groupings. In Normandy, Pays de la Loire, Brittany and Centre-Val de Loire, only 71 to 73% of offices are outside any brand and any management association: networks and management associations account for more than 25% there.
The 14 regions, office by office
| Region | Offices in the directory | Outside any brand and any AGC | Single office, outside any brand and any AGC, before removing groupings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Île-de-France | 7,851 | 97.7% | 84.8% |
| Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 3,476 | 87.3% | 64.4% |
| Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 3,082 | 94.4% | 74.3% |
| Occitanie | 2,768 | 87.4% | 66.5% |
| Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 2,492 | 82.7% | 57.7% |
| Grand Est | 1,704 | 85.2% | 61.8% |
| Hauts-de-France | 1,565 | 85.1% | 66.6% |
| Pays de la Loire | 1,206 | 71.7% | 53.6% |
| Bretagne | 1,088 | 72.9% | 53.3% |
| Outre-mer | 1,007 | 94.1% | 78.6% |
| Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | 893 | 77.5% | 50.1% |
| Normandie | 840 | 71.1% | 49.6% |
| Centre-Val de Loire | 676 | 72.3% | 51.5% |
| Corse | 242 | 90.5% | 65.7% |
The networks and groups with the most offices#
| Brand | Offices in the Order's directory | Announced locations | Type | Revenue (2026 ranking, as of June 30, 2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiducial | 486 | 1,230 offices across all trades | integrated group | €1,350M (all trades) |
| Cerfrance | 228 under this name (1,243 AGC offices in all) | more than 720 branches, 53 businesses | network of associations | €1,007M |
| In Extenso | 203 | 280 branches including abroad | group | €650M (2025, announced) |
| RYDGE | 178 | 200 locations | group (former KPMG small-business activity) | €430M |
| Fiteco | 161 | 151 to 180 offices depending on its pages | group | — |
The ten other brands in the ranking
| Brand | Offices in the Order's directory | Announced locations | Type | Revenue (2026 ranking, as of June 30, 2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exco | 116 | — | type not established | — |
| TGS France | 83 | — | type not established | — |
| Cogep | 79 | — | group | — |
| Cogedis | 75 | — | — | — |
| Tyls | 73 | — | — | — |
| Baker Tilly | 57 | 60 offices | international network | — |
| Orcom | 57 | — | — | — |
| Eurex | 56 | more than 60 offices, France and abroad (2020) | group | — |
| KPMG | 48 | — | — | €1,100M (all trades, audit included) |
| BDO | 45 | — | — | — |
"—": nothing is published, or we did not find it.
45 brands were searched, 40 found in the directory. The offices counted in the Order's directory and the announced locations agree for the networks that publish a figure specific to chartered accounting: Baker Tilly 57 against 60, RYDGE 178 against 200. Fiducial announces its offices across all trades combined (security, IT…).
Among the firms outside any brand network and any management association, before removing members of groupings, 3,021 run several offices under one company; 27 have 10 or more, such as Expertise et Technique Comptables (26 offices), Audit Finance Expert (24) or Compagnie Fiduciaire (24).
The market is consolidating. About 200 firms changed hands in 2025, against about 110 in 2020, 29% of them to consolidation platforms (op-ed by a chartered accountant, Compta-online, September 28, 2026).
How big are the firms?#
Most often, a firm is small. In the Order's directory, 29,923 office records are listed: 78.1% have a single registered chartered accountant, 19.3% two to four, 1.9% five or more, and 0.7% (208) no chartered accountant attached. In practice: in nearly 4 offices in 5, a single chartered accountant signs.
The profession employs about 190,000 people according to the Order (2026); Insee counted 166,196 full-time-equivalent jobs in 2021. On the establishment side, we linked 27,337 to the Order or to the same company as a linked establishment. 56.4% (15,406) are declared as employers. The declared headcount bands are distributed as follows; many employers have no band filled in at the register, hence the weight of the first line.
| Employees at the establishment | Establishments | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Band not filled in, or no employees | 14,127 | 51.7% |
| 1 to 9 employees | 9,020 | 33.0% |
| 10 to 49 employees | 3,873 | 14.2% |
| 50 employees or more | 317 | 1.2% |
| Total | 27,337 | 100% |
For revenue, 2,512 companies linked directly to the Order publish a positive revenue for a last closed fiscal year since 2022. Half make less than €758,000 a year.
| Company revenue | Companies | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Less than €250,000 | 675 | 26.9% |
| €250,000 to €1 million | 758 | 30.2% |
| €1 to €5 million | 789 | 31.4% |
| €5 million or more | 290 | 11.5% |
| Total | 2,512 | 100% |
One caveat matters: most firms do not publish their revenue, and those that do are bigger. An online directory finds 69% under €250,000 across 10,657 firms that file their accounts: those that publish their revenue in detail, as here, are clearly bigger than the whole.
The profession's revenue ranges from €16 to €28 billion depending on sources and years. Two dated benchmarks: Insee counts €22.0 billion in 2021 for 21,690 businesses; the Order cites €28 billion in a February 2026 document.
Selling to accounting firms in France? Get the list for your area and your target, ready to call.
Get the full listHow do you build a prospecting file of accounting firms?#
A number is not a list. Five points decide the quality of a file of firms.
- Start from the Order's directory rather than code 69.20Z. Nearly one establishment in four under the code (24.4%) is not a firm, and 4.3% duplicate another at the same location. The code changes in 2027 (what changes for NAF activity codes (France's industry classification) in 2027); registration with the Order does not change.
- Tell offices and companies apart. A company can run several offices. Group its establishments to identify the business to contact, while keeping each office's address.
- Identify how purchasing is organized in networks. Some purchases are decided at the head office, others in the member businesses. Cerfrance announces 53 businesses: check which buyer to contact before grouping its offices.
- Check reachability. The Order's directory gives a phone number for 93.9% of offices. Of 998 establishments under the code drawn at random, 34.8% have a website and 31.9% a public email.
- Keep it updated. With 2,715 establishments created in 2025 and still active, a year-old file has already lost lines and is missing openings.
Which clients and services do firms highlight?#
Scalon was able to read 255 sites out of 300 drawn at random from the 1,701 distinct web domains listed in the Order's directory. The shares below describe the 255 sites read.
| Service displayed | Share of sites |
|---|---|
| Payroll and HR | 58.8% |
| Legal | 51.8% |
| Business creation | 48.6% |
| Management consulting | 42.0% |
| Wealth management | 29.0% |
| Business transfer | 28.2% |
| Statutory auditing | 27.8% |
| IT | 8.6% |
| Client type named | Share of sites |
|---|---|
| Liberal professions and health | 37.3% |
| Shopkeepers and craftspeople | 32.2% |
| Nonprofits | 22.7% |
| Real estate and SCI (French property-holding companies) | 14.1% |
| Individuals | 12.2% |
| Cafés, hotels, restaurants | 11.0% |
| Farmers | 8.2% |
| Start-ups | 7.1% |
| Construction | 7.1% |
One site in two (52.9%) names at least one type of client. 14 sites display a price and 5 present themselves as an online firm. Limit: these firms have a site declared to the Order, and they are often bigger than the others.
Where are the accounting firms?#
France has 44.9 firms per 100,000 inhabitants. Paris alone holds about 3,900 firms (3,912), or 185.9 per 100,000 inhabitants: four times the average. Hauts-de-Seine follows with 74.6. At the other end, Meuse has 16.4 firms per 100,000 inhabitants and Ardennes 18.9 (setting aside Mayotte, at 8.7).
Île-de-France holds 27.5% of firms, and Paris 46.2% of the Île-de-France firms. The Ordre de Paris Île-de-France counts 48.3% of its firms in Paris (2025 annual report, "rapport moral"). The Order also puts about 30% of its registrants in Île-de-France (2025 Observatoire, repeated by Compta-online): the two are close, for different units (offices here, people registered with the Order there).
The 15 rows of the regions table
| Region | Firms | Share | Per 100,000 inhabitants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Île-de-France | 8,460 | 27.5% | 67.9 |
| Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 3,690 | 12.0% | 45.0 |
| Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 3,340 | 10.9% | 64.0 |
| Occitanie | 2,910 | 9.5% | 47.5 |
| Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 2,640 | 8.6% | 43.0 |
| Grand Est | 1,850 | 6.0% | 33.2 |
| Hauts-de-France | 1,710 | 5.6% | 28.6 |
| Pays de la Loire | 1,270 | 4.1% | 32.5 |
| Bretagne | 1,090 | 3.5% | 31.6 |
| Outre-mer | 960 | 3.1% | 42.5 |
| Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | 930 | 3.0% | 33.3 |
| Normandie | 910 | 3.0% | 27.2 |
| Centre-Val de Loire | 740 | 2.4% | 28.5 |
| Corse | 210 | 0.7% | 60.4 |
| Not located | 50 | 0.2% | — |
| Total | 30,760 (sum of figures rounded to the ten; 30,800 in the headline) | 100% | 44.9 |
The departments, from Ain to Mayotte
| Code | Department | Firms | Per 100,000 inhabitants |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Ain | 218 | 32.1 |
| 02 | Aisne | 138 | 26.3 |
| 03 | Allier | 99 | 29.6 |
| 04 | Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 98 | 58.2 |
| 05 | Hautes-Alpes | 82 | 57.1 |
| 06 | Alpes-Maritimes | 824 | 73.0 |
| 07 | Ardèche | 98 | 29.4 |
| 08 | Ardennes | 50 | 18.9 |
| 09 | Ariège | 66 | 42.2 |
| 10 | Aube | 93 | 30.1 |
| 11 | Aude | 130 | 34.2 |
| 12 | Aveyron | 111 | 39.7 |
| 13 | Bouches-du-Rhône | 1,420 | 68.0 |
| 14 | Calvados | 213 | 30.0 |
| 15 | Cantal | 49 | 34.2 |
| 16 | Charente | 105 | 29.7 |
| 17 | Charente-Maritime | 286 | 42.6 |
| 18 | Cher | 69 | 23.2 |
| 19 | Corrèze | 89 | 37.0 |
| 21 | Côte-d'Or | 241 | 44.6 |
| 22 | Côtes-d'Armor | 177 | 29.0 |
| 23 | Creuse | 29 | 25.1 |
| 24 | Dordogne | 153 | 36.8 |
| 25 | Doubs | 190 | 34.7 |
| 26 | Drôme | 214 | 40.9 |
| 27 | Eure | 122 | 20.2 |
| 28 | Eure-et-Loir | 96 | 22.1 |
| 29 | Finistère | 222 | 23.8 |
| 2A | Corse-du-Sud | 100 | 59.6 |
| 2B | Haute-Corse | 114 | 61.1 |
| 30 | Gard | 371 | 48.2 |
| 31 | Haute-Garonne | 832 | 56.6 |
| 32 | Gers | 91 | 47.1 |
| 33 | Gironde | 954 | 56.4 |
| 34 | Hérault | 691 | 56.2 |
| 35 | Ille-et-Vilaine | 462 | 41.2 |
| 36 | Indre | 56 | 26.0 |
| 37 | Indre-et-Loire | 226 | 36.6 |
| 38 | Isère | 511 | 39.3 |
| 39 | Jura | 79 | 30.6 |
| 40 | Landes | 134 | 30.9 |
| 41 | Loir-et-Cher | 84 | 25.6 |
| 42 | Loire | 310 | 40.0 |
| 43 | Haute-Loire | 83 | 36.1 |
| 44 | Loire-Atlantique | 557 | 37.4 |
| 45 | Loiret | 206 | 29.8 |
| 46 | Lot | 67 | 38.2 |
| 47 | Lot-et-Garonne | 149 | 44.6 |
| 48 | Lozère | 35 | 46.1 |
| 49 | Maine-et-Loire | 255 | 30.6 |
| 50 | Manche | 133 | 26.6 |
| 51 | Marne | 170 | 30.3 |
| 52 | Haute-Marne | 40 | 23.5 |
| 53 | Mayenne | 99 | 32.3 |
| 54 | Meurthe-et-Moselle | 197 | 26.9 |
| 55 | Meuse | 30 | 16.4 |
| 56 | Morbihan | 228 | 29.1 |
| 57 | Moselle | 282 | 26.8 |
| 58 | Nièvre | 49 | 24.3 |
| 59 | Nord | 835 | 31.9 |
| 60 | Oise | 238 | 28.7 |
| 61 | Orne | 65 | 23.6 |
| 62 | Pas-de-Calais | 355 | 24.4 |
| 63 | Puy-de-Dôme | 210 | 31.7 |
| 64 | Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 401 | 56.8 |
| 65 | Hautes-Pyrénées | 81 | 35.1 |
| 66 | Pyrénées-Orientales | 201 | 40.5 |
| 67 | Bas-Rhin | 576 | 49.5 |
| 68 | Haut-Rhin | 302 | 39.2 |
| 69 | Rhône | 1,289 | 67.3 |
| 70 | Haute-Saône | 58 | 25.1 |
| 71 | Saône-et-Loire | 181 | 32.9 |
| 72 | Sarthe | 133 | 23.5 |
| 73 | Savoie | 216 | 48.1 |
| 74 | Haute-Savoie | 393 | 45.6 |
| 75 | Paris | 3,912 | 185.9 |
| 76 | Seine-Maritime | 379 | 30.1 |
| 77 | Seine-et-Marne | 488 | 33.2 |
| 78 | Yvelines | 688 | 46.3 |
| 79 | Deux-Sèvres | 92 | 24.4 |
| 80 | Somme | 145 | 25.7 |
| 81 | Tarn | 149 | 37.6 |
| 82 | Tarn-et-Garonne | 82 | 30.9 |
| 83 | Var | 601 | 53.7 |
| 84 | Vaucluse | 318 | 55.5 |
| 85 | Vendée | 225 | 31.6 |
| 86 | Vienne | 128 | 29.2 |
| 87 | Haute-Vienne | 123 | 33.0 |
| 88 | Vosges | 110 | 30.8 |
| 89 | Yonne | 93 | 28.1 |
| 90 | Territoire de Belfort | 41 | 29.2 |
| 91 | Essonne | 409 | 30.6 |
| 92 | Hauts-de-Seine | 1,234 | 74.6 |
| 93 | Seine-Saint-Denis | 444 | 26.0 |
| 94 | Val-de-Marne | 780 | 54.7 |
| 95 | Val-d'Oise | 503 | 39.2 |
| 971 | Guadeloupe | 201 | 52.2 |
| 972 | Martinique | 149 | 41.4 |
| 973 | Guyane | 67 | 22.9 |
| 974 | La Réunion | 512 | 57.6 |
| 976 | Mayotte | 28 | 8.7 |
Is the market moving?#
In the register, code 69.20Z gained 1,157 establishments in 2025: 4,912 creations, 3,755 closures. The Order counts 21,288 structures in 2025 against 19,490 in the previous edition, or 1,798 more.
Among the establishments linked to the Order (or to the same company) and still active, 876 were created in 2015 and 2,715 in 2025. Among those 27,337 establishments, nearly half (49.7%) were created since 2020. Caveat: a move creates a new establishment, and this figure also counts moves.
The market is also aging: 49% of chartered accountants are 50 or older (2025 Observatoire, repeated by Compta-online). Among the owners of the establishments under the code, half are at least 51, and 21.5% are 60 or older. For a supplier, this means new firms to equip every year, and firms to take over: about 200 transfers in 2025.
Establishment creations by year
| Year | Establishments created and still active |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 876 |
| 2016 | 890 |
| 2017 | 978 |
| 2018 | 1,020 |
| 2019 | 1,281 |
| 2020 | 1,270 |
| 2021 | 1,705 |
| 2022 | 1,877 |
| 2023 | 2,050 |
| 2024 | 2,371 |
| 2025 | 2,715 |
Base: establishments linked to the Order or to the same company, still active. Recent years weigh more: older establishments have had more time to close.
How we count firms: NAF code, unit and edition date#
A reliable count writes down three things: what it counts, where it comes from, and the date. This is the rule of our dated sector counts.
The public source is the Sirene register, the register of businesses and their establishments kept by Insee. Each business carries a NAF code there (the French activity classification code, also called APE code, which classifies its main activity). For accounting, it is 69.20Z, "Activités comptables." For the details of this code, see the NAF code of a chartered accountant.
What remains is choosing the unit. A firm with three offices counts as one company, but as three establishments.
The total changes with the unit chosen. We keep only active establishments.
Our actual method comes down to three choices. The unit is the office. The filter is the active establishment. The date is that of the Sirene register of September 24, 2026, with the Order's directory read from August 30 to November 3, 2026.
A count remains market research. It says how many firms exist, not which ones to prospect: that is the role of a qualified list.
A figure is only worth its edition date. The NAF code classification changes on January 1, 2027. A count redone after that date will cover 69.20Y, which exactly takes over 69.20Z: Insee publishes a one-to-one correspondence between the two.
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Get the full listHow do you use these figures for market research?#
Size an addressable market#
An offer for all firms starts from 30,800 offices. An offer sold to decision makers, such as software or insurance, starts from distinct firms: 22,990 firms outside any brand network and any management association in the Order's directory (members of groupings included), plus the networks and the management associations. Roughly 16,600 offices of an independent single-office firm with a single chartered accountant are the most direct target.
Segment#
Cross structure (independents, multi-office firms, members of groupings, networks, management associations), size (one chartered accountant or several, number of employees) and the client types the sites display.
Choose a territory#
Always relate the number of firms to the population. Paris has 185.9 firms per 100,000 inhabitants, Meuse 16.4: a raw volume hides this gap.
Track a living market#
Office creations and firm transfers change the landscape every year. A study is dated and redone.
Frequently asked questions about accounting firms#
How many accounting firms does France have?#
About 30,800 firm offices in business in November 2026, according to Scalon's count. The Order counts 21,288 registered companies and associations in 2025: one company can have several offices.
How many chartered accountants are there in France?#
22,685 chartered accountants are registered with the Order in 2025. The figure of 21,611, still repeated by sites, is from the previous edition.
What is the difference between a firm, a company and a chartered accountant?#
The chartered accountant is a person registered with the Order. The accounting company is the registered legal structure. The firm, in this study, is an office where either operates: a company with three offices makes three firms.
How many firms are independent?#
81% of offices, or about 24,900, belong to an independent firm: outside any brand network, any group, any grouping of firms and any management association. 64% are single-office firms.
What are the biggest networks of firms?#
In the Order's directory, Fiducial has 486 offices, Cerfrance 228 under its name, In Extenso 203, RYDGE 178 and Fiteco 161. Fiducial announces its offices across all trades combined.
What NAF code applies to an accounting firm?#
69.20Z, "Activités comptables." It serves as a benchmark, but it does not prove registration with the Order. On January 1, 2027, it becomes 69.20Y.
Where are the most accounting firms?#
In Paris: about 3,900 firms, or 185.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, against 44.9 in France. Île-de-France holds 27.5% of firms.
Method#
Method details and limits
Unit of count#
The unit is the office: the head office or a secondary office of a structure registered on the roll of the Ordre des experts-comptables. A structure is a chartered accountant in their own name, an accounting company or a management and accounting association. It keeps, reviews and prepares its clients' accounts. A company with three offices counts as three. Establishments attached to the same entity record in our database and the same postal code (a firm and its holding company, a sister audit company) were merged into a single office: 1,786 establishments removed. Establishments of the same entity record located in different postal codes were kept. Holding companies registered with the Order are not counted as offices.
Building the universe#
The universe gathers 43,620 candidate locations (45,406 before removing the 1,786 establishments at the same location; the register's 41,959 establishments are 1.36 times the total of firms), split into six groups (strata):
- S1, 24,585: active establishments under code 69.20Z linked to an Order record.
- S2, 2,752: establishments under the code not linked, but belonging to the same company as a linked establishment.
- S3, 2,480: establishments for which an Order record carries a close name in the same postal code.
- S4, 10,356: the rest of code 69.20Z.
- S5, 3,115: offices of the national directory with no linked active establishment and no close name.
- S6, 332: offices of the directory linked to an active establishment under another code.
Excluded are 1,012 directory nodes whose only SIRET number (the French ID of a business location) is closed, and 1,171 nodes with no SIRET number whose name is close to an S3 or S4 establishment (same location, already counted).
Qualification#
100 locations were chosen at random in six groups examined separately (38, 7, 7, 34, 11 and 3), with a split different from their weight: more locations where the share of firms was most uncertain. Each was given two independent readings, with the web, by Scalon. Of these locations, 62 have two identical readings, 31 rest on a single conclusive reading (the other is "not found") and 7 were arbitrated by Scalon. In the group of locations linked to the Order (S1), 24 of the 37 locations drawn are confirmed by both readings. One drawn location (rank 97) was taken out of the calculation, because it is at the same location as a kept establishment. Final statuses: 53 registered firms, 6 unregistered bookkeepers, 16 other activities, 3 closed structures, 12 duplicates and 9 locations not found.
Estimate#
The total is the sum, for each group, of the number of locations multiplied by the measured share of firms: 24,585 in S1 (37 out of 37), 1,835 in S2, 709 in S3, 2,788 in S4, 850 in S5, 0 in S6. It gives 30,766, or 30,800 rounded. The 95% interval runs from 28,100 to 33,400, or ± 8.6%. If the locations not found were all non-firms, the total would be 29,848. If 9.5% of the locations linked to the Order were not firms (the lower confidence bound when 37 of 37 are firms), it would be 28,430.
For structure, the 28,911 open offices of the Order's directory are sorted into types: independent single-office firm, independent multi-office firm, brand network or group (list of 45 brands searched, 40 found in the record or company name), management association. 88% of offices are outside any brand network and any management association. The share of members of groupings is measured on the websites of 166 independent single-office firms and 72 multi-office ones; a member that does not say so on its site stays counted as independent: 81% is therefore a ceiling. The measured shares are applied to the total.
Public cross-check#
The figures are compared with the Order (21,288 structures, 22,685 chartered accountants), with Insee (sector 692 sheet) and with the locations published by the networks (Baker Tilly, RYDGE, In Extenso, Forvis Mazars, Grant Thornton). Île-de-France holds 27.5% of firms at Scalon and about 30% of registrants at the Order. The offices counted by brand agree with the published locations for the networks that publish a figure specific to chartered accounting.
The article on the NAF code of a chartered accountant counts 42,094 establishments under the code, about 2 in 3 of them linked to the Order: here, we also remove establishments at the same location and add the Order's offices missing from the code. Fiducial has 532 establishments there (under its companies); the Order's directory lists 486 offices under its name.
Rounding#
Totals are rounded to the hundred. Headcounts and shares are rounded separately: their sum can differ by one unit or by 0.1 point.
Limits#
- Members of groupings that do not say so on their site stay counted as independent: 81% is a ceiling.
- Revenue is published by only a minority of companies (2,512 of 20,557 in the stratum linked to the Order), bigger than the others. An online directory finds 69% of firms under €250,000 across 10,657 that file their accounts.
- Only 7% of offices declare a site to the Order: the client types and services displayed come from 255 sites drawn at random among those.
- The Order's directory is read on one date (August 30 to November 3, 2026), the Sirene register on another (September 24, 2026).
- Figures by region and by department are more uncertain than the total.
- The count gives a number of offices, not a list of firms to contact.
Key takeaways#
- France has about 30,800 accounting firms in business in November 2026, counting each office. The Order counts 21,288 registered structures: the two figures do not measure the same thing.
- Code 69.20Z, with its 41,959 establishments, is not a number of firms: 24.4% of these establishments are not firms, and 4.3% duplicate another at the same location.
- 81 offices in 100 are independent firms, outside any network, any grouping and any management association, and 64 in 100 are single-office firms: a market to prospect firm by firm.
- Paris has about 3,900 firms, or 185.9 per 100,000 inhabitants against 44.9 in France; the market renews itself, with 2,715 establishments created in 2025 and still active.
- A number does not replace a list: to prospect, start from the Order's directory and date every reading.