Accounting News Map
Global regulatory & profession weekly updates.
Methodology
How the maps are made
Where our data comes from, how we put it together and keep it current, and how to read the maps.
Every map on AccountingMaps is built from a dataset: a table of entries, each tied to a country, with a source for each entry wherever one exists. This page explains how those datasets are put together and how to read the maps. Each map's own notes follow below.
Where the data comes from
The datasets are researched from public sources: regulators and audit-oversight bodies, standard-setters, professional accountancy organisations, official statistics, international organisations such as IFAC, IFIAR and the World Bank, and reputable press. Entries link to their sources so you can check them for yourself.
How AI is used
AI helps us research public sources, organise datasets, classify entries and draft short summaries. AI can make mistakes, and sources can be incomplete or out of date, so treat a map as a starting point for your own research rather than a final answer.
Facts, estimates and judgements
Some maps report facts, such as which body oversees auditors in a country. Others include estimates or judgement: some salary figures are modelled, and each country's main challenge is chosen by an analyst. A map's notes say which kind of information it holds, and its country panels label estimates where they appear.
How to read a map
Each entry is placed on its country. Where a map colours countries, the legend explains the colours; where it shows markers, the number on a marker counts the entries behind it. Click a legend row to filter the map, and click a country or a marker to open its panel with the entries and their sources.
Updates and corrections
Each map shows the date of its last data update. Maps are refreshed when their datasets change, and the GDP map is read directly from the World Bank's open data. If you spot a mistake, use the Feedback button on any map or write to info@accountingmaps.com — corrections are always welcome.
The information on AccountingMaps is for general purposes only and is not professional, legal or investment advice.
The maps, one by one
Audit Oversight Bodies
Public audit-oversight bodies (POBs) and IFIAR membership by country
Sustainability Framework Adoption
Sustainability-reporting standards adopted by country (ESRS, ISSB, GRI, TCFD)
Professional Accountancy Organisations
Accountancy bodies (PAOs) and their IFAC membership, by country
Professional accountancy organisations (PAOs) — the institutes and associations that qualify and regulate accountants — and their standing with IFAC, the International Federation of Accountants.
Country colour shows the strongest IFAC status among that country's bodies: IFAC member, associate, suspended, or not in IFAC. Click a country to see every body there, with its regional confederation, founding year, website and IFAC profile, and membership figures where published.
Source: AccountingMaps PAO research workbook, Phase 1 (2026). Each body links to its own website and, where it has one, its IFAC profile.
Company Registry Portals
Where company financial statements are filed and published, by country
This is AI generated information, validated by Caucasus University students
Accountant & Auditor Salaries
Gross annual pay of accountants and external auditors, in US dollars (2026)
Typical gross annual pay of accountants and external auditors in 206 countries and territories, in nominal US dollars for 2026. Countries are coloured by the accountant figure.
How sure each figure is: for 21 countries the accountant figure comes from official occupational statistics (ISCO-08 2411, compiled from national statistics agencies by FedSalary), and for 11 from World Salaries' accountant figures, converted to US dollars. Everywhere else it is a modelled estimate: the country's average gross salary × 0.74. External-auditor figures come from World Salaries for 10 countries and are otherwise modelled as the average × 1.02. Each country's panel says which kind of figure it shows.
Modelled estimates are directional, not observed pay statistics — check a country's figure type before quoting it. Figures are nominal US dollars, with no adjustment for purchasing power or living costs. “External auditor” excludes internal, IT and tax auditors and audit partners.
Sources: wage.is (2026 average gross salaries, annualised), FedSalary and World Salaries.
Country Challenges
The main challenge for accounting and audit in each country, from public evidence (2026)
One prominent challenge facing accounting and audit in each of 197 countries — the 193 UN member states, Palestine, the Holy See, Kosovo and Taiwan — chosen by analyst judgement from public evidence. It is not a national survey, a ranking or a measure of severity, and different challenges are not scores to compare.
Countries are coloured by theme: the 87 challenge labels are grouped into skills & workforce, audit capacity & delays, audit quality, oversight & enforcement, standards & reporting, and controls & systems. Each country's own label, its evidence basis, the sector it concerns and a supporting note with its source are in the country panel.
Evidence basis: direct evidence means the source reports the issue itself; structural and provisional inference mean it is inferred from an institutional gap, a reform or a narrow study; historical evidence is an older finding that may no longer hold; an evidence gap means no sufficiently relevant evidence was found, which does not mean a country has no challenges. A finding may concern only the sector named under Scope — for example public-sector audit — not every private firm.
Research date: 5 October 2026 (the date sources were retrieved, not their publication date). Sources were public: regulators, professional bodies, institutional reports and academic research, with public social-media posts used as context only.
Annual Report Awards
National & global awards for the best annual reports and corporate reporting
GDP per Capita
GDP per capita (current US$), 2025 — World Bank Open Data
Source: World Bank Open Data — "GDP per capita (current US$)" (indicator NY.GDP.PCAP.CD), 2025 values.
Data © The World Bank, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ — retrieved from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD. The World Bank does not endorse this site or its presentation of the data.
Countries are coloured by the World Bank's income-group thresholds. Those thresholds are officially defined on GNI per capita (Atlas method) rather than the GDP per capita shown here, so a country close to a band boundary may fall one band away from its official classification.
2025 figures are provisional and are revised at each World Bank release; economies with no 2025 value are left unfilled.
Accounting History
Milestones in accounting and auditing, from clay tokens to sustainability reporting
Milestones in accounting and auditing, from clay tokens in the ancient Near East to today's sustainability reporting, each placed in the country where it happened. Click a country to read its milestones in order, oldest first, each with its source.
The colours group the dataset's 21 categories into seven themes; every milestone keeps its own category next to its date. For events tied to an institution or a standard, the place is that institution's city; for ancient events it is an approximate historical centre. EU-wide events — directives, and the adoption of IFRS and ESRS — are shown in Brussels, Belgium.
Accounting firms: foundings use the firm's practice city; cross-border combinations use a representative hub of one participating firm, not a verified signing venue. Predecessor practices, partnership changes and network mergers are separate events, and a date does not imply the incorporation of today's network.
Source: AccountingMaps accounting-history dataset (159 events). Each milestone links to its own source; official institutions, legislation, standard setters, regulators, professional bodies and major historical collections were preferred.