Benefit corporations and Certified B Corps are expanding the measurable role of business in social and environmental performance. The latest figures show a global Certified B Corp community of 9,368 businesses in 2024, while benefit-corporation laws existed in 51 jurisdictions. These measures are related but not interchangeable: legal benefit corporations are a corporate form, while Certified B Corps meet B Lab’s certification standards.
Contents
- Global scale
- Legal adoption and public companies
- Governance and accountability
- Workers and inclusive leadership
- Climate and environmental action
- Consumer awareness
- Resilience and financial context
Global scale
The Certified B Corp movement has reached substantial scale across industries and regions. In 2024, the community included 9,368 certified businesses, and 1,317 businesses joined the certified list during the year. New certifications were 16% higher than in 2023. Collectively, Certified B Corps represented 917,090 employees in 2024, with the employee network increasing 28% from the previous year. These figures come from A Year of Impact in Motion: B Lab’s 2024 Annual Report Summary.
A separate B Lab announcement reported that more than 1 million people worked at Certified B Corps across more than 10,000 companies in 160 industries on six continents in 2025. The difference between the 2024 and 2025 company and worker figures reflects different reporting periods and source statements; it should not be treated as a precise year-over-year series. The announcement is Over 1 Million People Now Work at Certified B Corps, as New Global Research Highlights Leadership on Fair Work.
For an earlier benchmark, B Lab’s 2023 year-in-review described nearly 8,000 Certified B Corps employing more than 700,000 workers in 93 countries. The movement had operated for 17 years from 2006 through 2023. Those historical figures are reported in Reflecting on our impact in 2023; they are not independently rechecked here.
| Measure | Reported figure | Period or scope |
|---|---|---|
| Certified B Corp businesses | 9,368 | 2024 |
| Businesses joining the certified list | 1,317 | 2024 |
| Certified B Corp employees | 917,090 | 2024 |
| New-certification growth | 16% | 2024 vs. 2023 |
| Earlier Certified B Corp footprint | Nearly 8,000 businesses; 700,000+ workers | 2023, 93 countries |
Legal adoption and public companies
B Lab reported benefit-corporation laws in 51 jurisdictions worldwide in its 2024 annual report summary. This is a measure of legal availability, not the number of companies incorporated under those laws. In the United States, an Oregon Secretary of State comparison chart lists benefit-company availability in 37 states and Washington, D.C. The chart is on the Benefit Company FAQ, whose current page was accessed October 1, 2026.
Certified B Corps also extend into public markets. B Lab had certified 75 publicly traded companies by the end of its 2024 reporting period. Certification status and legal form remain separate concepts: a company can be a legal benefit corporation without being a Certified B Corp, and certification figures do not provide a census of all legal benefit corporations. The legal and public-company figures are from A Year of Impact in Motion: B Lab’s 2024 Annual Report Summary.
Governance and accountability
B Lab’s new framework measures business impact across seven areas: stakeholder governance, fair work, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI), climate action, human rights, environmental stewardship and circularity, and collective economic action. The seven-part structure shows how benefit-oriented leadership can be evaluated across internal operations, supply chains, environmental performance, and broader economic participation.
The framework’s consultation attracted more than 1,000 stakeholders in 55 countries and generated 16,637 pieces of feedback during the January 2024 consultation. In that consultation, 86% of respondents agreed that the new standards set high social, environmental, and governance expectations. A further 84% said the standards clarified certification requirements, a result 11 percentage points higher than in 2022, while 71% said the standards aligned with their company goals. These results and participation measures are reported in A Year of Impact in Motion: B Lab’s 2024 Annual Report Summary.
Accountability measures also appear in comparative research cited by B Lab. Certified B Corps were 2.8 times more likely than comparison businesses to publish impact reports and 2.6 times more likely to hold managers accountable for aligning with the brand mission. These comparisons describe relative likelihoods in the cited research; they do not establish that certification alone caused the differences.
Workers and inclusive leadership
B Lab said its standards affected more than 42 million workers globally in 2024. This is broader than the number of people employed directly by Certified B Corps because it describes the reach of the standards. The distinction matters when interpreting the measure alongside the 917,090 employees reported within the 2024 Certified B Corp community.
Research cited in B Lab’s 2024 report found that B Corps were 51% more likely than comparison businesses to offer quality health insurance and 25% more likely to solicit employee input. They were 1.8 times more likely to offer employees stock options and fair compensation. B Corps were also twice as likely as ordinary businesses to pay all employees a family living wage, according to B Lab’s 2023 year-in-review.
Ownership and representation provide additional indicators. About 119,000 B Corp workers owned shares in their company in 2023. On B Lab’s current Why Certify? page, B Corps were 61% more likely to anonymously survey employees on gender identity, race or ethnicity, disability status, and other demographic factors. The page also reports that B Corps were 4.5 times more likely to sponsor supplier-diversity programs.
Climate and environmental action
B Lab’s 2024 annual-report summary said it had launched more than 50 climate-focused standards. More than 800 B Corps had joined the SME Climate Hub to work toward net zero, and 273 B Corps had adopted Science Based Targets initiative targets. These are participation and adoption counts, not a claim that every participating company has reached net zero or met its target.
Operational measurement was more common among B Corps in research cited by B Lab: they were 3.1 times more likely than comparison businesses to track social and environmental key performance indicators. They were also 2.7 times more likely to use environmentally friendly packaging. B Corps had saved 8.4 million tons of waste from landfills or incineration by 2023, according to Reflecting on our impact in 2023.
Supply-chain screening is another reported difference. B Corps were more than twice as likely to screen suppliers for social and environmental performance, according to B Lab’s Why Certify? page. The date is not stated on that current page, so the figure should not be combined into a dated trend line with the 2024 counts above.
Consumer awareness and market influence
B Corp recognition is growing, but awareness varies by market and survey population. Twenty-five percent of consumers across the regions surveyed had heard of B Corps in B Lab’s 2024 awareness report. Awareness was 35% in the United Kingdom, the highest rate reported in that study, and 24% in Europe. European B Corp awareness grew 9% in 2024. These figures are reported in B Corp brand awareness is strong, and growing and A Year of Impact in Motion: B Lab’s 2024 Annual Report Summary.
Among U.S. consumers already aware of B Corp certification, 85% said it influenced their purchasing decisions. B Lab’s awareness example also reported that 50% of Americans aged 25 and younger were familiar with B Corps. Because the first percentage applies only to consumers already aware of certification, it should not be read as 85% of all U.S. consumers.
B Lab’s current U.S. and Canada page reports aggregate awareness of 43% in the United States and 32% in Canada. The page does not state a measurement date for those figures. They therefore provide current-page context rather than a directly comparable time series with the dated 2024 survey results.
Resilience and financial context
B Lab’s 2023 study found that more than 95% of the B Corps studied remained in business in 2023, compared with 88% of comparable non-B Corps. The figures come from 5 things to know about the resilience and financial performance of B Corps. They describe the study populations and should not be generalized to every benefit corporation or treated as proof that certification caused greater survival.
B Lab’s current Why Certify? page shows a world-average highest-paid-to-lowest-paid employee pay ratio of 144:1 and an average ratio of 6:1 for B Corps. The page does not state a measurement date. In the same source, B Corps were 2.2 times more likely to have their board review social and environmental performance annually.
The financial projections available in the supplied Oregon Secretary of State source are explicitly conditional. A UK study cited by B Lab estimated that if all UK businesses operated like B Corps, annual GDP could be £149 billion higher, alongside an estimated £86 billion increase in capital investment. These are forecasts for an all-businesses scenario, not observed results. The source also cites research reporting that investment professionals were willing to pay a median 10% premium to acquire a company with a positive environmental, social, and governance record. These estimates and research findings should be kept distinct from measured certification totals.