Kantar had a turnover of £426.481m in 2023, a 6.043% increase on the previous year, according to the league tables, which are published in the Research Live Industry Report 2025.

The company was joined in the top five biggest companies by Gartner, Ipsos, Wood Mackenzie and Dunnhumby.

Euromonitor, Mintel, GlobalData, CACI and Verint Systems rounded out the rest of the top 10 places.

Quantexa was named the fastest-growing agency, with a growth rate of 55.628% to a £57.858m turnover in 2023.

Strat7 Incite, PA Consulting, Alteryx and GWI GlobalWebIndex were the rest of the top five fastest-growing agencies, with the rest of the top 10 consisting of Kynetec, AIIMI, Strat7 CrowdDNA, MetrixLab and MTM.

The top 100 agencies in 2023 had total turnover of £5.213bn, according to the report, and overall year-on-year growth within these 100 agencies was 7.165%.

For the first time, the report noted which agencies had signed the MRS climate and diversity pledges, with only three of the top 20 businesses having signed either of the pledges (Kantar, Ipsos and GfK) and two (GfK and Ipsos) having signed both.

The UK research industry had a gender pay gap of 10.3% in 2023 compared with the national average of 13.1% and the industry figure was narrower since the start of mandatory reporting in 2018, when it was 13.2%.

The report also described 2023 as “a year which further illustrated the resilience of the industry” and which “had the appearance of more ‘normal’ conditions than the early years of the decade, although some sectors of the industry continued to find market conditions challenging”.

The UK was the second largest country for market research in the world after the US, and was by far the largest supplier in Europe of market research, analytics and insight, representing more than half of total declared European output in 2023.

As well as client and agency perspectives on the outlook for research and the progress of AI, the report includes a detailed look at a study by Professor Sharron Hinchliff from the Nursing & Midwifery School of Allied Health Professions at the University of Sheffield. 

The study investigated the stigma around the sex lives of the over-50s, which resulted in the Sexual Rights Charter – the first of its kind in the UK – and was recognised with the MRS President’s Medal at the MRS Awards 2024.

Jane Frost, chief executive at MRS, said: “Despite some serious headwinds in terms of both the economy and the political landscape throughout the past couple of years and the challenge of increasing technological change, the research and insights sector continues to go from strength to strength. 

“There is, of course, always more to do to ensure we’re delivering the best possible value and results – and getting ordinary people’s voices heard. Next year we will need to continue to lead the way on AI and how we use the technology in a way which maintains the human connection and creativity which is so important to what we do. 

“There will no doubt be bumps in the road, as businesses navigate the impacts of the chancellor’s recent budget, as clients try to do more with less, and as consumer sentiment struggles to pick up. However, these results – and the incredible work and talent highlighted at the MRS Awards this year – fill me with confidence in our sector’s ability to manage the challenges and capitalise on the opportunities ahead of us in 2025.”

The Research Live Industry Report 2025 can be downloaded here.