ISO Survey 2019: Evolution of the standards with which Ozona works

At Ozona, we have been working with the ISO 20000, ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 standards for a long time. We assist organizations from several countries in adapting their management systems to the requirements set by these standards. But how widespread is their use around the world? How has it evolved in recent years?

ISO Survey of Certification and its 2019 version

In order to answer these questions, ISO annually publishes the ISO Survey of Certification, which shows the evolution in the number of organizations certified to any of the 12 standards that are analyzed.

The latest version of this study, the ISO Survey 2019, has been published recently. The participation rate for this year’s survey was similar to that of 2018 despite the pandemic situation caused by Covid-19.

Lynda Cooper, ISO 20000-1:2018 Project Editor and Associate Consultant of Ozona, has analyzed the information from the ISO Survey 2019, paying special attention to the results obtained by ISO 20000 and comparing them with those of the previous year. Below is a summary of her analysis and of the results obtained by the other two standards with which Ozona usually works (ISO 27001 and ISO 22301).

The most extended ISO standards

Just as in previous years, the most widespread standards around the world are ISO 9001 – Quality management systems and ISO 14001 – Environmental management systems, with 883,521 and 312,580 accredited certificates respectively.

Among the standards Ozona works with most often, the most widely used is ISO 27001 – Information security management systems, rising to the 3^rd in the ranking with 36,362 accredited certificates. As for ISO 20000 – IT service management systems and ISO 22301 – Business continuity management systems, they hold the 8^th and 9^th positions, with 6,047 and 1,693 certificates respectively. Of these three standards, ISO 20000 has the highest percentage of accredited certifications out of total certifications issued (77.7%).

According to the survey results, the highest numbers of organizations certified in any of the three previous standards are found in the IT sector and the transportation, warehousing and communication sector.

Evolution of the number of certificates issued

According to the ISO Survey 2019, the number of certifications continues to rise for the 12 standards analyzed. There has been an overall increase of 3.8% from last year. However, this boost has not been homogeneous at all, being much higher for some standards than for others.

Regarding the ISO 20000, ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 standards, they all have experienced similar growth, around 11-12%. ISO 27001 is the one that rose the most, followed by ISO 20000 and, finally, ISO 22301. However, all three are growing much more than the 9001 and 14001 standards. Although these standards have the highest numbers of certifications, the figures grew only by 0.55% and 1.77% since last year.

ISO standards in Spain

The results of the ISO Survey 2019 reflect the growing interest of Spanish companies in obtaining and maintaining ISO certifications. Indeed, Spain is in the top ten in terms of number of certifications in 11 of the 12 surveyed standards. It only ranks below in ISO 13485 – Quality management systems in medical devices, where it ended 16^th.

Among the standards with which Ozona usually works, the case of ISO 20000 stands out. Spain is the 2^nd country with the most certifications in this standard, just after China and ahead of the US, India, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Mexico and Germany. As for ISO 27001 and ISO 22301, Spain is in 8^th place in both rankings, both times ahead of the US and Mexico. In the case of ISO 22301, Spain also surpasses China, Japan and Germany.

ISO Survey 2019 data sources

The ISO Survey 2019 bases its analysis on data provided by accredited entities. Thus, it can be inferred that the number of total certifications is higher. However, the degree of independence, objectivity and rigor of the non-accredited certification schemes varies considerably from one scheme to another. That is why ISO only uses data from accredited entities in order to ensure the reliability of the study.

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