Map the accounting industry with four questions

The accounting industry is an interesting example of how a market can be mapped with public data. It consists of thousands of small companies, a limited number of large players and several adjacent activities that cannot always be separated in the statistics.

We asked four questions in an AI assistant with Sancera connected. The result was a first dataset for assessing the market's size, its structure and which players are worth a closer look.

1. “How many accounting firms are there in Sweden?”

Statistics Sweden's (SCB) Business Register contained 17,483 active legal entities with accounting, bookkeeping and tax consultancy as their main industry on 12 November 2026. Sole traders are not included in the selection.

The size classes are register data and refer to number of employees, not turnover.

Just over 94 per cent of the companies have no employees or at most four. Only 118 have at least 20 employees.

There is an important limitation: 17,483 legal entities is not the same as 17,483 independent accounting firms. The industry code describes the registered main activity, and the selection also includes companies in large industrial groups, foundations and foreign companies registered in Sweden.

To identify firms that offer accounting services to external clients, the list therefore needs further processing.

Source: SCB, Business Register, 12 November 2026. Own processing of register data via Sancera.

2. “How large is the industry, and how profitable is it?”

SCB's Structural Business Statistics show the industry's economic development, but with a broader scope. The statistics cover accounting, bookkeeping, auditing and tax consultancy together, so the development cannot be attributed to accounting firms alone.

• Higher production value. Production value rose by 16.6 per cent between 2022 and 2024. The figure is in current prices and is not adjusted for price changes.
• More employees. The number of full-time employees rose by 9.8 per cent over the same period.
• Lower margin. The operating margin before depreciation and write-downs fell from 18.0 to 16.7 per cent.

It is not possible to tell whether the development is driven by accounting firms, auditing or a change in composition.

SCB also has a separate row for accounting and bookkeeping, but the values are missing in the retrieved data. Using the broader group's production value as a measure of the accounting market alone would therefore be misleading.

Why do the counts differ? The economic statistics show 22,399 activity units for 2024, while the register selection covers 17,483 legal entities in November 2026. The measures are not comparable: they refer to different points in time, populations and industry scopes.

The Structural Business Statistics include auditing and sole traders, among other things, while the register selection covers only legal entities within a narrower main industry. The difference can therefore not be used to calculate either growth or decline.

Source: SCB, Structural Business Statistics, basic data and key ratios for kind-of-activity units 2022–2024, via Sancera.

3. “Who are the largest players?”

The register selection contains 15 legal entities with at least 100 employees. Ten of them have their registered office in Stockholm.

The largest is Aspia AB, in the size class 1,500–1,999 employees, followed by Ludvig & Co AB with 500–999. Six companies have 200–499 employees and seven have 100–199. The full list is included in the Excel export.

The figures are SCB's size classes per legal entity, not a ranking by turnover or market share. Three things need to be checked before the list is used:

• Group companies. Vattenfall Business Services Nordic and Volvo Business Services International are among the fifteen. Their business needs to be reviewed before they are treated as competitors in the external accounting market.
• A legal entity is not a group. Larger firm groups can operate through several companies. Assessing market position therefore requires identifying group structures and related companies.
• Main industry does not mean a pure-play business. According to the register, Nobeli Business Support has 70 per cent of its business in accounting, and BDO Göteborg has 51 per cent accounting and 49 per cent auditing. Companies with auditing as their main industry fall outside the selection.

The list thus shows larger employers within the chosen industry code. Market shares require data on turnover, business mix and group affiliation.

Source: SCB, Business Register, 12 November 2026. Own processing via Sancera.

4. “Which mid-sized firms should be looked at more closely?”

For a market analysis, the largest players are not always the most interesting.

The register selection contains 103 legal entities with 20–99 employees: 84 in the size class 20–49 and 19 in the class 50–99.

It is a bounded selection that can be used for competitor mapping, location analysis or for picking out companies to follow up. With company registration number, company name, size class, registered office and address in Excel, the selection can be sorted geographically and companies picked out for further review.

Number of employees is only a first filter. Before a company is judged relevant, several questions need answering:

• Is the business an independent firm or part of a larger group?
• Does the company offer accounting services to external clients?
• How have turnover, profitability and headcount developed?
• Who owns the business, and are there related companies?

The register data can be combined with annual reports, ownership data and group structures, with the company registration number as the common identifier.

The result is not a finished market map, but a traceable first selection that can be reviewed and refined.

Source: SCB, Business Register, 12 November 2026. Own processing via Sancera.

From statistics to a usable analysis base

The four questions give different perspectives on the same market:

• 17,483 legal entities within the chosen main industry in the business register.
• 22,399 activity units within the broader industry group in the economic statistics for 2024.
• 118 legal entities with at least 20 employees, of which 103 have between 20 and 99.

The figures do not contradict each other. They describe different populations, points in time and scopes.

A useful market analysis does not start with finding a figure, but with understanding what it measures.

With Sancera connected, an AI assistant can retrieve official statistics and public data from 100+ sources, including SCB, the Swedish Companies Registration Office (Bolagsverket) and Eurostat, with source references, periods and export to Excel or CSV.

That does not replace analytical judgement. The choice of market definition, the identification of relevant players and the conclusions about the market still require analysis. It does, however, become easier to produce a first dataset where the figures can be checked, compared and processed further.

Next time you need to map an industry, you can start with the same four questions: How many players are there? What do the industry's finances look like? Who is largest? And which ones should be looked at more closely?

Then ask your AI assistant to export the dataset to Excel, with source, period and scope.

About the data: The figures were retrieved via Sancera on 12 November 2026. The register data refer to the same date and the economic statistics to the period 2022–2024. The datasets are based on different versions of the industry classification and different statistical populations. In the register selection, tax consultancy is included in the same industry code as accounting and bookkeeping. Register data and published statistics may be revised. Calculations and selections are own processing of SCB's data.