UK & Ireland

The consulting markets of the UK and Ireland are combined estimated to be worth around $23 billion, which amounts to nearly a quarter of the European consulting industry. Over the past seven years the UK & Ireland consulting industry has grown by over 20%.

In 2010 the UK & Ireland consulting industries realised a total fee turnover of $18.8 billion, according to data from ALM Intelligence, a US-based analyst firm that tracks consulting markets globally. The past six years have seen the consultancy landscape grow with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.4%, taking the total industry size to the current $23.1 billion. The growth rate of the consulting markets was consistently between 3% and 4%.

UK & Ireland consulting market

According to the analysts, the UK consulting market is between 10x and 11x times the size of the Irish consulting market, with Greater London the region's powerhouse in terms of demand for consulting and implementation services.

An analysis of market segments shows that Financial Advisory is the largest discipline in the UK & Ireland with a market share of 32%, mainly due to the highly financialised economy and London's role of London as a global financial capital. Operations Consulting, from a European perspective the largest industry segment, follows with a 26% share. IT Consulting represents 19% of the UK & Ireland consulting industry, while Strategy Consulting and HR Consulting each hold a 12% stake.

UK & Ireland consulting industry

* Note that definitions of the consulting market and the methodology used by ALM Intelligence differs from the approach followed by other analyst firms. According to the MCA, for instance, the UK consulting industry is worth £10 billion – see the page 'UK Consulting Market' for details.