A MAJOR MILESTONE IN ACCOUNTING HISTORY,
BROKEN DOWN BY (WHAT ELSE?) THE NUMBERS
It’s a proud moment in the AICPA’s 127-year history: Membership has now surpassed 400,000. That’s a
whole lot of CPAs making sense of a changing and complex world for clients, companies, and organizations
around the globe. Here are a few other facts and figures to help commemorate the occasion.
Learning and Development:
The 70/20/10 Model6
AICPA Members’
Core Values3
EDUCATION
2%
GOVERNMENT
3%
INFORMAL, ON-THE-JOB,
EXPERIENCE-BASED
METHODS
70%
RETIRED AND
MISCELLANEOUS
9%
Integrity
91%
Competence
Business
decision-makers
who say CPAs are
valuable assets to
their organizations.2
Learning
Objectivity
Excellence
79%
78%
40,350
CPA firm respondents
who predicted
international growth
for their firms in the
next five years.4
CPA firm high
potentials who
participate in
mentoring
programs.7
New accounting
graduates hired
by CPA firms
in 2012, a 164%
increase over
2002.8
Relevance
MANAGEMENT
ACCOUNTING
39%
68%
PUBLIC
ACCOUNTING
46%
ESSENTIAL AND ENDURING
Remaining substantially
unchanged since the beginning,
the core values of the profession
keep CPAs on track in a changing
global economy.
AICPA Voting
Membership1
MEMBERSHIP THROUGH THE YEARS
1887
22 MEMBERS
1901
103 MEMBERS
1 AICPA data based on voting membership total of 365,466 that does not include student, associate, or affiliate members.
Percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding.
2 2013 Applied Research & Consulting LLC survey.
3 CPA Horizons 2025 Report.
4 2013 AICPA Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) survey of 251 CPA firms.
5 12-month growth forecast from AICPA Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey, 3Q 2014.
CPA business and industry
decision-makers who
expect their businesses
to expand.5
1947
10,696 MEMBERS
COACHING, MENTORING,
AND DEVELOPING
THROUGH OTHERS
20%
FORMAL
INTERVENTIONS
AND STRUCTURED
COURSES
10%
2000
337,454 MEMBERS 9
2014
400,000+ MEMBERS
6 Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger, The Career Architect Development Planner,
as cited in the AICPA report The Future of Learning.
7 The PCPS 2011 Top Talent Study survey of high potentials and their leaders.
8 AICPA 2013 Trends in the Supply of Accounting Graduates and the Demand for Public Accounting Recruits survey.
9 Excluding student, associate, and affiliate members.