Accounting grad numbers continue to decline

The number of students who graduated with either a bachelor's or master's degree in accounting dropped again last year, but not as much as in recent years, according to the latest Trends report released Monday by the American Institute of CPAs.

The AICPA's 2025 Trends report indicated that graduates who earned either a bachelor's or master's degree in accounting declined to 55,152 in the 2023-24 academic year, a 6.6% decrease compared to the prior year. That represents a slower rate of decline than in the previous two school years (9.6% in 2022-23 and 7.4% in 2021-22), when the lingering impact of the pandemic had far-reaching consequences for U.S. college graduation rates overall.

The AICPA report also pointed to provisional data for the 2023-2024 academic year released last month by the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, showing 40,817 students earned an accounting bachelor's degree that year, a 3.3% drop compared to the prior year.

Those who earned master's degrees in either accounting or taxation declined approximately 15% to 14,335 degrees. That decrease aligns in part with a more dramatic drop in the funnel of bachelor's degree earners in previous years.

On the other hand, the Trends report points to strong hiring by the CPA firms that responded to the survey, although the relatively low number of respondents makes it difficult to project the numbers to the wider population of accounting firms. 

The public accounting firms that responded to the survey reported hiring a total of 11,985 new graduates in 2024, but due to the low response rate, the aggregate number of new graduate hires by firms last year in the U.S. could not be projected with confidence by the AICPA. Of those new hires, 75% were accounting graduates. Of firms that hired in 2024, three-quarters (75%) indicated they expected to add a similar number of staff or more in the current year, while only 18% anticipated lower hiring rates.

The recently released 2023-24 provisional graduation data is a lagging indicator of student demand for accounting degrees, the AICPA noted. Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center point to two consecutive semesters of 12% year-over-year growth in accounting enrollment in the 2024-25 school year, suggesting the pipeline to the profession is on the upswing.

"While we continue to see a contraction in the supply of accounting graduates, it's encouraging the rate of decline has slowed year over year," said Jan Taylor, the AICPA's academic-in-residence, in a statement. "That suggests some of the initiatives the profession has pursued in recent years are starting to have an effect. We've seen an increase in entry-level pay, more objective narratives about opportunities in the profession, and a renewed commitment to reduce some of the costs and administrative hurdles to becoming a CPA."

The number of new candidates who took the CPA exam decreased from 2023 to 2024, the initial year of a new exam model that concentrates on testing core competencies in accounting, auditing, tax and technology while assessing other competencies in one of three disciplines: information systems and controls; tax compliance and planning; or business analysis and reporting.

Typically, the year before a major change in the CPA exam brings a surge in test-takers and 2023 was no exception: 42,626 new candidates entered the exam pipeline, the highest number since 2016. That compares to 28,082 new candidates entering the pipeline in 2024. The 2025 testing year, which isn't reflected in the Trends report, pointed to growth, with 16,448 new candidates entering the exam pipeline through the first six months of this year.

The upward trend brings the prospect of stronger demand for the CPA license as candidates get ready for the changing demands of the accounting profession.