It’s no secret that construction project management has a high failure rate. This article pulls together nine project management statistics for 2025 and 2026. Each one is checked against the original report rather than another blog’s list, with a link and a year next to it. Reading through them will help you recognise where projects usually go wrong, and where the risk sits on your own jobs.
- 91% of public sector project owners and 53% of private owners reported a project failure in the past year (KPMG, 2026).
KPMG’s 2026 report on engineering and construction, Under Pressure, surveyed construction executives and found that 91% of public sector project owners and 53% of private owners had at least one project failure in the past year. For a contractor, that means the client across the table has very likely been burned before, and they will read your reporting with that history in mind.
- Only 18% of project professionals have high business acumen (PMI, 2025).
PMI’s 2025 Pulse of the Profession report found that 18% of project professionals have high business acumen, 66% sit at a moderate level, and 16% are low. On a construction job, that gap usually shows up as someone who can run the programme but struggles to explain what a slipping float means for the client’s cash flow, or for yours.
- Fewer than 1 in 200 large projects deliver everything they promised (Oxford Global Projects, 2026).
Oxford Global Projects, the research group led by Bent Flyvbjerg, maintains a database of more than 16,000 projects across 136 countries. A 2026 summary of that data put it plainly: barely one project in 200 delivers everything it promised. Most contractors will never run a project anywhere near the size Flyvbjerg studies, but the pattern still holds at smaller scale: a project rarely goes wrong in only one place.
- Cost overruns on mega-sized capital projects average 88% (KPMG, 2026).
KPMG’s 2026 report, drawing on its 2025 Global Construction Survey, found that cost overruns on mega-sized capital projects average 88%. The lesson applies at a fraction of that scale too: the bigger and longer the contract, the more room there is for the final account to drift from the first estimate. A poorly tracked budget is usually where that drift starts.
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- Nine in ten megaprojects overrun their budget, their schedule, or both (Oxford Global Projects, 2026).
The same Oxford Global Projects database behind statistic three shows that nine in ten megaprojects overrun their budget, their schedule, or both, with a mean cost overrun that is well over half the original figure. Construction and infrastructure make up a large share of that dataset, which is why finishing on time and on budget counts as the exception in the trade press rather than the rule.
- Construction firms made up 17% of all UK company insolvencies in the year to September 2025 (The Insolvency Service).
The Insolvency Service’s September 2025 company insolvency statistics show construction responsible for 3,934 insolvencies, 17% of all cases where the industry was recorded, more than any other sector. A single overrun rarely sinks a contractor on its own, but it is usually one of several that do once the cash flow forecast stops matching reality.
- Nearly 22% of US contractors had a project delayed or cancelled in a single month because of tariffs (ABC, 2025).
Associated Builders and Contractors ran a member survey in April 2025 and found that nearly 22% of contractors had a project delayed or cancelled that month because of tariffs, up from 18% in March, and 87% had already been notified of tariff-related material price rises. Material cost volatility now sits alongside the usual causes of delay, which is one more reason to track committed costs as they happen rather than at month end, instead of relying on a spreadsheet that only gets updated when someone remembers to open it.
- Only 24% of construction firms use AI on more than half their projects (KPMG, 2025).
KPMG’s 2025 Global Construction Survey found that 24% of companies have adopted AI on more than half of their projects, and 15% have not adopted it at all, even though 56% of executives describe themselves as “cutting edge” or “industry leading” on technology. The gap between how firms see themselves and what they have actually rolled out is wide, and it usually starts with basic project data still living in spreadsheets and email rather than one shared system.
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- 87% of construction executives say their focus on project performance has intensified (KPMG, 2026).
The same KPMG report found that 87% of construction executives say their attention to project performance has sharpened, and 71% described themselves as optimistic about the business in 2025, up from 56% two years earlier. Confidence is rising even as the underlying delivery numbers stay weak, which suggests owners and investors are paying closer attention to the data behind each project rather than its backlog size alone.
These nine statistics can give general insight into where projects go wrong and why. They are also a reason to look at your own numbers more often, since the gap between a contractor who tracks costs weekly and one who finds out at the final account is exactly where most of the statistics above come from.
Where these numbers come from
These statistics come from PMI, KPMG, the Insolvency Service, Associated Builders and Contractors, and the Oxford Global Projects database maintained by Bent Flyvbjerg. Each figure was checked against the original report or survey page, not a secondary list, in October 2026. If any of these organisations publish an update, the numbers here may move, so treat this page as a snapshot of 2025 and 2026 data rather than a permanent fact.
FAQ
What percentage of construction projects go over budget?
KPMG’s 2025 Global Construction Survey found that more than 75% of capital projects finish over budget, and cost overruns on mega-sized projects average 88%. The pattern holds at smaller scale too, which is why tracking committed costs matters more than tracking invoices alone.
Are project failure rates improving?
Only slightly. KPMG found that 91% of public sector project owners and 53% of private owners reported a failed project in the past year, and the Oxford Global Projects database still puts nine in ten megaprojects over budget, over schedule, or both. The headline numbers have stayed roughly where they were for years.
Why do most project management statistics come from huge projects?
Large infrastructure and capital projects are the easiest to measure consistently across years, which is why a database like Oxford Global Projects and a survey like KPMG’s both focus on them. Smaller contractors rarely show up in national datasets, so the figures above are a proxy for the pressures most jobs face rather than a direct measurement of every contract.
How can a smaller contractor avoid becoming another statistic?
Track committed costs as soon as they are approved, so an overrun shows up before the invoice does and there is still time to act. Keep retention, variations, and subcontractor payments in the same system as the budget, and check the numbers more often than once a month.