This year Gensler, the world’s biggest practice, saw the number of architects it employs drop below the 3,000 mark, the milestone which it broke through in 2023. The second-placed firm, Arcadis, also saw numbers fall. But these drops mean little when measured against the wider profession; our annual survey of the world’s largest architects reveals the real story is that not much has changed since last year.

Gensler reports that it had a tough year, thanks to high interest rates holding  back client investment in the US. Meanwhile Arcadis’s minor drop in the number of architects it employs could be down to a corporate decision to pull back from the Middle Eastern market. Elsewhere, many of the top 10 architects increased their numbers in line with similar increases in previous years. This trend continues down the rankings; the overall number of architects employed by the world’s 100 biggest firms increased by 13%.

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