The links on the left-hand side of this page present an analysis of the use of IFRS Accounting Standards around the world. That analysis is based on the 168 jurisdiction profiles completed thus far by the IFRS Foundation.
Updated September 2023
The IFRS Foundation develops and maintains profiles that set out the application of IFRS Accounting Standards in individual jurisdictions (jurisdiction profiles).
Profiles have been completed for 168 jurisdictions, including all of the G20 jurisdictions.
The 168 jurisdictions represent all parts of the globe, as follows:
| Number of jurisdictions | Per cent of total | |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | 44 | 26% |
| Africa | 39 | 23% |
| Middle East | 13 | 8% |
| Asia and Oceania | 35 | 21% |
| Americas | 37 | 22% |
| Totals | 168 | 100% |
160 of the 168 jurisdictions have a commitment to IFRS Accounting Standards.
The relevant authority in all but seven of the 168 jurisdictions (Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Egypt, Macao, Suriname and Switzerland) has made a public commitment to IFRS Accounting Standards as the single set of global accounting standards. Even in the absence of a public statement, IFRS Accounting Standards are commonly used by publicly accountable entities (listed companies and financial institutions) in Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Switzerland.
147 jurisdictions require IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most domestic publicly accountable entities (listed companies and financial institutions) in their capital markets.
Of the 21 jurisdictions that have not adopted IFRS Accounting Standards:
The following table analyses the use of IFRS Accounting Standards in the 168 profiled jurisdictions by region of the world:
| Region | Jurisdictions in the region | Jurisdictions that require IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most domestic publicly accountable entities | Jurisdictions that require IFRS Accounting Standards as % of total jurisdictions in the region | Jurisdictions that permit or require IFRS Accounting Standards for at least some (but not all or most) domestic publicly accountable entities |
Jurisdictions that neither require nor permit IFRS Accounting Standards for any domestic publicly accountable entities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 44 | 43 | 98% | 1 | 0 |
| Africa | 39 | 37 | 95% | 1 | 1 |
| Middle East | 13 | 12 | 92% | 1 | 0 |
| Asia-Oceania | 35 | 28 | 80% | 2 | 5 |
| Americas | 37 | 26 | 70% | 9 | 2 |
| Totals | 168 | 147 | 87.5% | 13 | 8 |
| As % of 168 | 100% | 87.5% | 7.7% | 4.8% |
The 168 profiles include all 30 member states of the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA), in which IFRS Accounting Standards are required for consolidated financial statements of companies whose securities trade in a regulated market.
The 147 jurisdictions that require IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most domestic publicly accountable entities include 19 that have no stock exchange but that require IFRS Accounting Standards for all financial institutions (Afghanistan, Angola, Belize, Brunei, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Kosovo, Lesotho, Liberia, Republic of the Congo, Yemen).
Of the jurisdictions that do have stock exchanges, six do not require IFRS Accounting Standards for listed financial institutions (Argentina, El Salvador, Israel, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay) though they do require IFRS Accounting Standards for other listed companies. All of the others require IFRS Accounting Standards for all listed companies.
Around 65 per cent of the 147 jurisdictions that require IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most domestic publicly traded companies also require IFRS Accounting Standards for some domestic companies whose securities are not publicly traded, generally financial institutions and large unlisted companies.
87 of the 168 jurisdictions require or permit the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard, and it is currently under consideration in an additional 11 jurisdictions.
Updated 12 January 2018
The following observations relate to the information in the profiles of the members of the Group of Twenty (informally, the G20), which is the premier forum for international cooperation on the most important issues of the global economic and financial agenda.
The G20 brings together finance ministers and central bank governors from the following 19 countries plus the European Union: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
All of the G20 jurisdictions have made a public commitment supporting a single set of high-quality global accounting standards.
The relevant authority in all of the G20 jurisdictions has made a public commitment to IFRS Accounting Standards as the single set of global accounting standards.
Fifteen of the G20 jurisdictions have adopted IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most companies in their public capital markets. Of the remaining five G20 jurisdictions:
Of the fifteen G20 jurisdictions that have adopted IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most publicly traded companies, twelve require IFRS Accounting Standards for all; two (Mexico and Argentina) require IFRS Accounting Standards for all other than financial institutions; and one (Canada) allows US GAAP for some and has deferred IFRS Accounting Standards for some others.
All of the fifteen G20 jurisdictions that have adopted IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most publicly traded companies also permit IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most non-publicly traded companies.
The G20 jurisdictions made very few modifications to IFRS Accounting Standards, and the few that were made are generally regarded as temporary steps in the jurisdiction's plans to adopt IFRS Accounting Standards. There are five EU jurisdictions in the G20. While the EU did make an optional 'carve-out' from IAS 39 that the EU itself describes as 'temporary', the 'carve-out' has been applied by fewer than two dozen banks out of the 8,000 IFRS companies whose securities trade on a regulated market in Europe. Saudi Arabia added several disclosures and eliminated several accounting policy options but did not otherwise change IFRS Accounting Standards.
The audit reports in ten of the fifteen G20 jurisdictions that have adopted IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most publicly traded companies refer to conformity with IFRS Accounting Standards. The audit reports in the other five G20 jurisdictions using IFRS Accounting Standards refer to conformity with IFRS as adopted by the European Union. The audit report in Saudia Arabia refers to conformity with IFRS as endorsed in Saudi Arabia.
Five G20 jurisdictions have adopted the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard.
Updated September 2023
The GDP (2022 data*) of profiled jurisdictions that require or permit the use of IFRS Accounting Standards for domestic publicly accountable entities (listed companies and financial institutions) constitutes 51% of the GDP of all profiled jurisdictions.
The GDP of profiled jurisdictions that do not permit the use of IFRS Accounting Standards for any domestic publicly accountable entities constitutes 49% of the GDP of all profiled jurisdictions. Three jurisdictions (China, India and the United States) account for nearly all (94%) of the GDP of profiled jurisdictions that do not permit the use of IFRS Accounting Standards for any domestic publicly accountable entities.
*2022 GDP data used where available. For profiled jurisdictions where 2022 GDP data was not yet available, data from the most recent available year was used.
Detail is in the table below:
| US$ (billions) | Per cent (%) | |
|---|---|---|
| GDP of 166* profiled jurisdictions | 94,457 | 100 |
| GDP of jurisdictions that require IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most domestic Publicly Accountable Entities (PAEs) | 41,866 | 44.3 |
| GDP of jurisdictions that require IFRS Accounting Standards for some (but not all or most) domestic PAEs | 208 | 0.2 |
| GDP of jurisdictions that permit IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most domestic PAEs | 5,951 | 6.3 |
| GDP of jurisdictions that neither require nor permit IFRS Accounting Standards for domestic PAEs | 46,433 | 49.2 |
Updated September 2023
This page provides information on the population of domestic listed companies that are required or permitted to use IFRS Accounting Standards globally. For this analysis, the total number of domestic listed companies is from the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), which provided data on 101 exchanges globally in 2022*. Only four of the 101 exchanges are based in countries that do not currently have a jurisdiction profile on the IFRS Foundation website.
The table below shows the population of domestic listed companies in jurisdictions where IFRS Accounting Standards are required or permitted, rather than the actual number of listed companies using IFRS Accounting Standards. Where jurisdictions permit the use of IFRS Accounting Standards it is not always possible to obtain precise data on which financial reporting framework the relevant companies have chosen, and so we have not attempted to provide that level of analysis.
According to 2021/2022 data, the population of domestic listed companies that are required or permitted to use IFRS Accounting Standards is 32,810 , which represents 60% of the total 53,959 domestic listed companies on WFE exchanges.
Three jurisdictions (India, the United States and China) account for nearly all (89%) of domestic listed companies that are neither required nor permitted to use IFRS Accounting Standards.
The analysis does not provide information about companies listed on exchanges that are not WFE members and therefore it does not include data on the population of listed companies on many small securities exchanges which may be required or permitted to use IFRS Accounting Standards.
| Requirements | Domestic listed companies | Per cent (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Total domestic listed companies on WFE exchanges according to 2020 annual data* | 53,959 | 100 |
| Number of domestic listed companies in countries that do not have a jurisdiction profile | 213 | 0.4 |
| Population of domestic listed companies in jurisdictions that require IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most domestic Publicly Accountable Entities (PAEs) | 28,695 | 53.2 |
| Population of domestic listed companies in jurisdictions that permit IFRS Accounting Standards for all or most domestic PAEs | 4,115 | 7.6 |
| Number of domestic listed companies in jurisdictions that neither require nor permit IFRS Accounting Standards for domestic PAEs | 20,936 | 38.8 |
Updated January 2024
The following observations relate to the information in the 168 profiles currently posted concerning adoption of the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard.
| Number of jurisdictions | |
|---|---|
| IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard is required or permitted | 86 |
| IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard is currently under consideration | 12 |
| IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard is not used or under consideration | 70 |
| Total | 168 |
The 86 jurisdictions that require or permit the IFRS for SMEs Accounting Standard are:
Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Lesotho, Liberia, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Montserrat, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Switzerland, Tanzania, Trinidad & Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.