This statistic shows the global market size of outsourced services from 2000 to 2019. In 2019, the global outsourcing market amounted to 92.5 billion U.S. dollars.

The global outsourcing market - additional information

The revenue of the global outsourced services industry has been unsteady over the last few years. In 2016, the industry market size dropped to 76.9 billion U.S. dollars, the lowest figure seen in a decade. The largest share of revenue for this industry came from the Americas, followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa. A much smaller share of global revenue came from the Asia Pacific region.

Outsourcing involves the contracting out of business processes to third parties, usually in order for the business to avoid certain costs, such as taxes. In 2019, business process outsourcing contributed a much smaller proportion of the industry’s global revenue than information technology outsourcing, generating 26 billion and 66.5 billion U.S. dollars respectively.

Other outsourcing segments within the global industry include business services, energy, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, retail, travel and transport, and telecom and media. In 2016, the leading driver for using outsourcing services, according to business executives, was to cut costs. Other drivers included, enabling focus on core business and solving capacity issues.

The Americas had the largest outsourcing market in 2019, with 62 billion U.S. dollars of revenue created by contracts valued at over 25 million U.S. dollars. This was a significant increase from two years ago and meant that for the second time North America was a larger market than Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Types of outsourcing Outsourcing can involve contained segments of an organization, such as customer care or specific business functions which cut across all segments like Information Technology (IT) and Human Resources (HR). While the industry may limit which organizations can benefit from the former type of outsourcing, the common nature of processes like IT and HR mean all industries can potentially outsource, creating a massive global industry. For example, while healthcare is expected to increase IT outsourcing the least of all industries, IT outsourcing in this industry alone is still expected to be worth over 50 billion U.S. dollars globally. Industry growth Considering only contracts above 25 million U.S. dollars, total contract value in the outsourcing market has declined in recent years from a 2014 peak of 104.6 million U.S. dollars. This decline is reflected in the intention of companies to expand their use of offshoring. Analysts point to several reasons for this trend. First, the increasing ability to automate business processes has overtaken the cost advantages of outsourcing in some cases. Second, there is greater quality control over in-house operations and increased flexibility in the deployment of these type of operations. Finally, social and political pressure has led to some companies preferring to keep jobs close to home, rather than utilize cheaper labor overseas.

The statistic shows the revenue generated in the outsourcing industry by service type from 2010 to 2019. In 2019, 26 billion U.S. dollars was generated through business process outsourcing (BPO).

Global outsourcing industry - additional information

Outsourcing is the contracting out of processes to external parties. Business process outsourcing (BPO), which generated 26 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2019, involves transferring business processes to service providers outside of an organization. This process often requires offshoring. In 2019, India was the best country for offshoring when its financial attractiveness, the skills and availability of its people and its business environment are considered together. Information technology outsourcing (ITO) is closely related to business process outsourcing as many business processes are technology based. In 2019, global ITO revenue was 66.5 billion U.S. dollars.

The global revenue of business process outsourcing and information technology outsourcing amounted to around 92.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, of which more than half was generated in the Americas. Southern Europe was the region with the largest share of businesses practicing, or planning to practice, business process outsourcing. Latin America and South Africa also had high proportions.

Business process outsourcing includes delegating back-office or internal functions, like HR and accounting, and front-office or customer-related functions, such as those that would be passed on to call centers. In 2016, most companies used outsourcing services as a cost cutting tool while communication was a main driver of a successful outsourcing experience among mid-market business leaders worldwide.

This statistic shows the share of businesses by their plans to outsource finance and accounting department back-office processes worldwide as of February 2015, by region. In Latin America, 55 percent of mid-market business outsource finance and accounting department back-office processes.

In 2015, the global outsourcing industry generated 88.9 billion U.S. dollars in revenue.

The statistic shows the size of the outsourcing industry worldwide from 2010 to 2013, by its two major segments: business process outsourcing and information technology (IT) outsourcing. In 2013, the business process outsourcing industry was worth 27.7 billion U.S. dollars worldwide.

This statistic shows the total contract value (TCV) of the outsourcing market in the Americas from 2000 to 2019. In 2019, the size of the outsourcing market in the Americas amounted to 62 billion U.S. dollars. In 2019, the global traditional outsourcing industry generated 92.5 billion U.S. dollars in revenue.

In 2019, 58 percent of small sized organizations revealed that they do not outsource their benefit application services. During the same survey, 56 percent of organizations stated that workforce management meets their business needs most of the time.

In the United States in 2024, companies in the training industry were asked to report on their outsourcing activities. A total of 56 percent of training companies surveyed either partially or fully outsourced workplace training instruction or facilitation that year. Almost no outsourcing was done for learner support training, with 86 percent of training companies stating that they do not outsource this training. No custom content development was mostly or completely outsourced.

This statistic depicts the top reasons why companies worldwide outsource information technology (IT) services in 2018. During the survey, 35 percent of respondents stated they currently outsource IT services as it frees up resources to focus on their company's core business.

The statistic shows the level of IT security process outsourcing worldwide from 2014 to 2017, by service type. As of 2017, 47 percent of respondents indicated that their organization outsourced the IT security auditing process to a third party.

The majority of medium organizations worldwide do not outsource their human resources (HR) shared services, with 82 percent of respondents in a 2019 survey stating they only use employees onshore for this function. Conversely, ten percent of large organizations stated that their HR shared services was resourced through offshore employees.

In 2019, the outsourcing penetration rate in the United States stood at 66 percent. In that same year, 92 percent of organizations engaged in information technology outsourcing (ITO) services with an active contract.

This statistic shows the breakdown of the global outsourced customer experience market in 2017, by region. In that year, the Asia Pacific region accounted for 22 percent of the outsourced customer experience market.

In 2022, the market size of the Chinese service outsourcing industry amounted to approximately 252 billion U.S. dollars, representing an annual growth of 11.4 percent. From 2016 to 2022, the industry grew substantially.

In 2019, cumulative market expenditure on outsourcing in the United States was equivalent to almost 20 billion U.S. dollars. In that same year, total spending on outsourcing in North America amounted to roughly 21.6 billion U.S. dollars.

The statistic reveals the IT functions most commonly outsourced by IT leaders worldwide, as of 2017. In 2017, software application development was outsourced by 64 percent of respondents.

According to a survey conducted in 2024, almost three quarters of surveyed biopharma executives stated that it is extremely likely or very likely that their company will outsource patient recruitment within the next two years. This statistic describes the likelihood of outsourcing select drug development activities among biopharmaceutical companies, within the next two years.

During a 2024 survey carried out among more than 3,000 marketers in the United Kingdom, 46 percent of respondents stated the companies they worked for outsourced elements of marketing to third parties. The share stood at 50 percent for business-to-business (B2B) companies and 41 percent for business-to-consumer (B2C) companies.

This statistic shows the level of outsourcing across legal processes, according to a 2014 Deloitte survey. At the time, 67 percent of respondents said that they already outsourced for legal opinions, with a further 23 percent of respondents saying they were planning to outsource those services.

This statistic shows the share of companies that outsource IT functions in Finland in 2017, by type of function. That year, IT service support, web development, and information security were the most commonly outsourced functions at approximately 60 percent each. In comparison, 31 percent of companies reported to fully or partially outsource office application support.