Fast facts and figures

  • 84,000 clients operating in 193 countries
  • 90 offices in 31 countries
  • 3,100 standards were published last year
  • 4,600 members of BSI staff
  • Over 15,000 Subscribing Members
  • 12,200 Committee Members
  • 7,951 standards projects
  • 63,000 current or draft standards available on BSOL
  • 33,000 current British Standards
  • 232,000 audit days in last 12 months
  • 200,000 delegates trained in last 12 months
  • Notified Body under 15 European Directives/Regulations
      • Established in 1901, BSI was the world's first national standards body
      • The original BSI committee met for the first time on the day Queen Victoria died – 22 January 1901. One of the first standards it went on to publish was designed to reduce the number of sizes of tramway rails
      • BSI’s Kitemark™ has provided reassurance for over 100 years and an independent survey of 1,000 UK adults in March 2015 showed that almost two-thirds of consumers believe the Kitemark is an indication of quality and associate it with rigour; products and services that are tried and tested. The first Kitemark was awarded to General Electric for Vitreous Enamelled Steel Reflectors for Lighting Fittings
      • Together our clients account for 83% of the FTSE 100, 53% of the Fortune 500 and 81% of the Nikkei listed companies
      • In 2017, BSI provided practical training for approximately 150,000 people worldwide on how to implement and operate standards
      • BSI has been independently voted a UK Business Superbrand every year from 2003 to 2018 and its Kitemark from 2008 to 2016
      • 2015 research by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) showed that standards contribute towards £8.2 billion of UK GDP growth
      • 24 out of the top 25 global medical device manufacturers use BSI Medical Services
      • The quality management systems standard, ISO 9001 – which started life at BSI in 1979 as BS 5750 – is now recognized as the world's most successful standard having been adopted by more than one million organizations in 178 countries.
      • BSI published the first standard on Organizational Resilience (BS 65000:2014)) to provide guidance on how to be able to anticipate, prepare for, respond and adapt to incremental change and sudden disruptions in order to survive and prosper.