Coaching Statistics: A Curated List of The Most Insightful Stats

The coaching industry has grown significantly over the past decade as more individuals and businesses recognize the benefits of having a coach.

Here is the ultimate list of coaching statistics to provide a broad overview of the current state of the coaching industry and where it’s headed in 2022.

General Coaching Statistics

Here are the top statistics that illustrate the general coaching industry’s market and size, as well as the key benefits of hiring a coach, elements of a great coach, and average salaries.

Market Size and Demand

How much is the coaching industry worth?

• The online coaching industry is worth over 11 billion dollars.
• North America is the leading geographical region in terms of revenue, with 45.5% of the global share of the coaching industry.

Is the coaching industry growing?

• Yes, the market size of the coaching industry in the U.S. has grown by about 1.2% since 2016. It was recently valued at $11.6 billion (measured by revenue) in 2021.

How many coaches exist?

• There are currently over 71,000 coaches worldwide, which is a 33% increase since 2015.

Main Coaching Benefits

• The most common benefit received from business coaching is increased self-confidence. In fact, 80% of people who received business coaching reported an increase in self-confidence.
• The top five most common benefits of business coaching are increased self-confidence (80%), improved relationships (73%), communication skills (72%), interpersonal skills (71%), and work performance (70%).
• The three lowest-rated business coaching benefits included improved investment planning (15%), financial organization (27%), and corporate culture (38%).

What Makes a Good Coach?

Students say that the most important thing when selecting a coach are: 

• Personal rapport: 96% say it is at least somewhat important, and 83% say it is very important. 
• Personal compatibility: 96% say it is at least somewhat important, and 80% say it is very important.
• An effective coaching process: 96% say it is at least somewhat important, and 78% say it is very important.
• Coach’s confidence: 96% say it is at least somewhat important, and 74% say it is very important.

Students say that the least important qualities when searching for a coach are:

• Ethnicity (12% say it is somewhat important)
• Physical appearance (22% say it is somewhat important)
• Gender (34% say it is somewhat important)
• Age (34% say it is somewhat important)

Coaching Rates and Salaries

How much does a coach make?

• The average coach makes $58,435 per year, or $28 per hour, though this number increases with experience.
• The average salary of a coach with 10-15 years of coaching experience is $122,000. 
• The average salary of a coach with 15 years of coaching experience is $160,000.

Business/Executive Coaching Statistics 

Below we’ll discuss some of the most important coaching statistics for the business and executive coaching industry.

Business Coaching Industry Size and Demand

Is the business coaching industry growing?

• Yes, business coaching is in demand as the business coaching market size is expected to increase by 2.4% in 2022.

Is executive coaching in demand? 

• Yes, executive coaching is in demand as about 25% to 40% of all Fortune 500 companies invest in executive coaching for their leaders.  

How much do companies invest in coaching?

• Companies invest about $90 billion in training (which coaching is a major part of) annually. This is a year-over-year increase of about 32.5%. 
• One study found that about 60% or 6 out of 10 companies invest in coaching for their employees.

What percentage of executives have a coach?

• A study showed that 39% of CEOs have an executive coach. The same study also showed that executives in larger companies are significantly more likely to use an executive coach than those in smaller companies. 
• In fact only 32% of seed-stage CEOs used a coach, while 60% of growth-stage CEOs used an executive coach.

How many coaching companies are there in the US?

• There are about 57,391 business coaching businesses in the US.
• The number of business coaching businesses grew by about 2.2% in 2022.

Business Coaching Prices and Fees

How much does a business coach make?

• In 2022, the average business coach made $85,199 annually. The range is typically between $71,806 and $103,871.

How much do business coaches charge?

• According to Salary.com, the average business coach charges $41 per hour, and the range is typically between $35 and $50 per hour. However, the top percentage of coaches charge much more.

How much do executive coaches charge?

• Most executive coaches charge between $200 and $500 per hour with a median hourly rate of $425.

Business Coaching ROI

How many companies measure the ROI of business coaching?

• Only about 28% of companies measure the ROI of business coaching moderately consistently
• An additional 55% of companies measure the ROI of business coaching infrequently.
• Measuring the ROI of business coaching tends to make it more impactful as those that do measure ROI tend to report that they receive better results. Of those that measured the ROI of coaching, 72% reported an increase in productivity. 
• However, of those who did not measure the ROI of coaching, only 42% reported increased productivity from the coaching sessions.
• In addition, those that measured an ROI were more likely to report that it helped improve succession planning (72%) than those that did not measure an ROI (only 44%)

How do companies measure the ROI of business coaching?

• The most common metric used to measure the ROI of business coaching is individual self-assessments (52%).
• The top five metrics used to measure the ROI of business coaching are individual self-assessments (52%), employee satisfaction/employee engagement (48%), manager assessments (46%), 360-degree peer assessments (44%), and employee retention (41%).

Is having a business coach worth it?

• About 63% of organizations that provided employee coaching reported higher revenue and income growth than their competitors.

What is the ROI of business coaching?

• About 86% of companies reported that they at least broke even on their initial coaching investment. 
• Nearly half (47%) of companies received at least a 10x ROI on their business coaching investment, and about 19% claimed they received an ROI of about 50x (5,000%).
• The median ROI on business coaching is about 700% (meaning you can expect to see about a 7x return on your coaching investment).
• Another study done by Manchester Inc reported that the average ROI on executive coaching is 5.7x the initial investment, and in this study, that equated to over $100,000.
• Yet another study found that the average ROI of business coaching is 529%, with significant intangible benefits. 
• Three-quarters (77%) of the 30 respondents indicated that coaching resulted in a significant or very significant impact on at least one of nine business measures.

Why Don’t More Companies Offer Coaching?

One study asked respondents that aren’t investing in coaching why they aren’t making it a priority. Here were a few of the challenges preventing them from investing in coaching.

• The top reason companies don’t offer coaching (59%) is because of budget constraints.
• The top two other reasons coaching isn’t implemented are that it’s difficult to measure ROI (41%) and organizational culture does not support leadership coaching (41%).
• About 35% of respondents also said that getting leadership buy-in was a major challenge. 

Business Coaching Benefits

What are the benefits of business coaching?

• The top benefits business coaching provides include increased employee engagement (67%), improved employee perceptions of leadership quality (60%), improved leadership bench strength (54%), improved productivity (50%) and improved quality of work (44%).

What is the main benefit of business coaching?

• Above all, the top benefit of business coaching is improved employee engagement.
• Another study showed similar results, with employee satisfaction as the most significant intangible benefit and customer satisfaction as the second most significant intangible benefit. 

Business Coaching Sessions

How long should executive coaching last?

• The average short-term coaching engagement is 3 months ,and the average long-term engagement is 13 months. 
• Coaching sessions last approximately 55 minutes.
• The most common practice (reported by 41% of coaches) is to meet once per week.
• Half of all coaching session conversations are between 30 and 39 minutes. The second most popular length for a coaching session was 60 to 69 minutes.

Life Coaching Statistics

These life coaching statistics discuss the current market demand, common demographics, average coaching rates, and more.

Life Coaching Industry Size and Demand

What is the life coaching market size?

• The life coaching market size in the U.S. is about 1.0 billion dollars in 2022.
• The total U.S. self-improvement was an estimated 11.3 billion dollars and is expected to grow to 14 billion dollars by 2025.

Is there a market for life coaches?

• Yes, there is a market for life coaches, with the total market growing 4.9% from 2021 to 2022.

Is life coaching competitive?

• Yes, life coaching is competitive, with about 18,233 life coach businesses in the U.S. in 2022. This number grew by 2.6% from 2021 to 2022. 
• In addition, only 20-30% of life coaches succeed.

Life Coaching Demographics 

What is the average age of a life coach?

• The average age of a life coach is 34 years.

How many life coaches are in the U.S.?

• There are about 18,233 life coach businesses in the United States.
• This is an increase of 1.2% from 2021 to 2022.

Life Coaching Rates 

How much does a life coach make?

• The average life coach makes $70,951 per year, with the majority of life coaching salaries ranging from $43,000 to $123,000 per year.

How much do life coaches charge?

• The average coach charges between $128 and $321 per hour. The price varies depending on the coach’s experience, location, results, and target audience.

How do life coaches make money?

• Coaching sessions are the primary form of income for most life coaches, though 93% of life coaches also offer additional services.
• In fact, the 93% of coaches that offer additional services only spend about 44% of their working hours coaching.

Final Thoughts

While coaching used to be a service for the elite, more and more people realize that having a coach can dramatically improve performance, health, and happiness.

As the coaching industry continues to evolve, we’re eager to be at the forefront of that change and therefore offer a coaching platform that supports group and one-on-one coaching. 

If you’d like to learn more about our platform, you can check it out here or sign up for a demo.