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PwC Finishes First In Vault’s Accounting Firm Prestige Ranking For the Gazillionth Time (2023)

Another year, another first-place finish for PwC in Vault’s ranking of the most prestigious public accounting firms. At this point, you can just pencil in PwC as being the most prestigious firm now until the end of time. If a firm was to eventually unseat PwC in prestige, it would be as big of an upset as the US Olympic hockey team beating the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics. Or La La Land winning the Oscar for Best Picture over Moonlight in the 2017 Academy Awards. Oh wait, that actually didn’t happen, right PwC?

With the release of Vault’s 2023 prestige ranking yesterday, PwC has now locked down first place for 14 straight years. Of the 17 times Vault has done a prestige ranking, only two other firms have held the top spot: EY in 2007 and Deloitte in 2009. PwC also held the title of most prestigious firm in 2008.

PwC’s prestige score of 8.914 out of 10 in 2023 is the highest ever in the history of Vault’s prestige ranking, beating its own record of 8.880 in 2022’s ranking.

To figure out which accounting firm is the most prestigious, Vault gave 9,700 accounting professionals a survey to complete between December 2021 and February 2022. The survey consisted of questions about life at the accountant’s firm (or former firm) and a prestige rating. As for the prestige rating, survey participants were asked to rate firms other than their own on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most prestigious. Participants were asked only to rate firms with which they were familiar, and were not permitted to rate their own (or former) firm. Vault then averaged the prestige scores for each firm and ranked them in order.

Unlike its ranking of the best accounting firms to work for, which featured only 25 firms for 2023 instead of the usual 50, Vault kept its 2023 prestige ranking at 50 firms. There are no changes among the top 13 firms from the previous year’s ranking: you have the Big 4 (PwC, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG), then the top rung of the mid-tiers (Grant Thornton, BDO USA, and RSM US), and then the second level of mid-tier firms (Baker Tilly, Crowe, Moss Adams, CohnReznick, CliftonLarsonAllen, and BKD). The first firm to change positions is Marcum, which moved up one spot to 14th in 2023. Here are the 50 firms in the US dripping in prestige:

1. PwC (1)
2. Deloitte (2)
3. EY (3)
4. KPMG (4)
5. Grant Thornton (5)
6. BDO USA (6)
7. RSM US (7)
8. Baker Tilly (8)
9. Crowe (9)
10. Moss Adams (10)
11. CohnReznick (11)
12. CliftonLarsonAllen (12)
13. BKD (13)
14. Marcum (15)
15. EisnerAmper (14)
16. Plante Moran (16)
17. CBIZ MHM (18)
18. Dixon Hughes Goodman (17)
19. Mazars USA (20)
20. Cherry Bekaert (19)
21. Eide Bailly (22)
22. Armanino (25)
23. Withum (24)
24. Wipfli (26)
25. Citrin Cooperman (21)
26. UHY Advisors (28)
27. Friedman (23)
28. RubinBrown (27)
29. Cohen & Co. (30)
30. PKF O’Connor Davies (31)
31. The Siegfried Group (30)
32. Novogradac & Co. (41)
33. Elliott Davis (34)
34. Carr, Riggs & Ingram (40)
35. Frank Rimerman + Co. (48)
36. Bennett Thrasher (39)
37. Sikich (42)
38. BPM (43)
39. (tie) Anchin (37)
39. (tie) Berdon (36)
41. Grassi & Co. (38)
42. Whitley Penn (45)
43. HCVT (NR)
44. Wolf & Co. (NR)
45. Doeren Mayhew (49)
46. Frazier & Deeter (47)
47. HBK (NR)
48. Warren Averett (NR)
49. Kaufman, Rossin & Co. (NR)
50. Aronson (46)

Congrats to these firms for racking up the most prestige points. Commence bragging.

Related article:

PwC Does Not Relinquish Top Spot In Vault Accounting 25 (2023)

5 thoughts on “PwC Finishes First In Vault’s Accounting Firm Prestige Ranking For the Gazillionth Time (2023)

  1. Your math seems wrong. If the current streak started in 2010, then how has PWC won 14 years in a row? Where’s a PWC auditor when you need one?

    1. I think I’m right:

      2010 (first year)
      2011 (second year)
      2012 (third year)
      2013 (fourth year)
      2014 (fifth year)
      2015 (sixth year)
      2016 (seventh year)
      2017 (eighth year)
      2018 (ninth year)
      2019 (10th year)
      2020 (11th year)
      2021 (12th year)
      2022 (13th year)
      2023 (14th year)

      1. “Where’s a PWC auditor when you need one.”

        If they can’t count to 14, I think I’m good.

      2. We’re in the middle of April 2022. How can there be “best place to work for” ratings for 2023? That doesn’t make any sense.

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