Whistleblowing & Incident Management Benchmark Report
2025 Whistleblowing StatisticsThe world’s leading report on global whistleblowing statistics
Our annual Whistleblowing & Incident Management Benchmark Report shares whistleblowing statistics, key findings and recommendations from an analysis of the world’s largest whistleblowing reporting database.
NAVEX anonymizes the data collected through our reporting and incident management systems every year and creates the world’s leading whistleblowing benchmarking report to share with all organizations – not just our customers. Because we have the world’s largest and most comprehensive database of reports and outcomes, risk and compliance professionals trust our benchmarks to help guide decision making and better understand how their programs stack up.
This annual report is an important resource for organizations committed to benchmarking and improving whistleblowing program effectiveness.
Methodology
For statistical accuracy, our analysis includes only those organizations that received 10 or more whistleblowing reports in all of 2024. The resulting database includes 4,077 organizations that together received a total of 2.15 million individual reports. New this year, we have also calculated metrics based on nearly 144,000 conflict of interest disclosures made through NAVEX One Disclosure Manager.
For each whistleblowing benchmark included in this report, you will find:
- A description of the benchmark
- Instructions to calculate the benchmark
- The 2024 combined data for all industries in the NAVEX database, with prior-year comparisons for legacy metrics
- Key findings and recommendations
Executive summary
Whistleblowing statistics and benchmarking data to help you navigate a changing compliance landscape
The success of an ethical and compliant organization hinges on one aspect more than any other – trust. When employees and other reporters trust that they can speak up about misconduct without fear of Retaliation, organizations and their cultures become stronger. Organizational understanding of risk improves. Customer loyalty increases. Regulatory compliance is critical, but a culture in which reporters feel they can “speak up” is immutable.
Readers of this report may find themselves casting their minds toward strategies to navigate geopolitical changes occurring internationally in 2025. The data contained in this text is a critical tool to do so – a foundation in the effort to understand and prepare for the ethics and compliance landscapes to come. See our full report for expert guidance to inform the success of your internal reporting and compliance programs.
Findings
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Record whistleblowing report volume holds for second year
Median Reports per 100 Employees were identical comparing 2023 and 2024, at 1.57. This continued the record level seen in 2023. In addition, the middle 50% of median Reports per 100 Employees and overall ranges in our analysis of this metric narrowed toward the median comparing 2023 and 2024. This may be a signal of greater alignment toward the global median – a movement toward more consistent program reporting levels.
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By frequency, Web-based whistleblowing reports overtake Hotline for the first time
In terms of the frequency of reports made globally, Web reporting (33.4%) edged out Hotline reporting (29.4%) for the first time in the history of this analysis. Hotline remains an important channel. “Other” reporting, typically reports made in person, grew year-over year and represents the greatest share of reports made globally by frequency. Readers are encouraged to download our full report to see intake method by median analysis, which may hew closer to expectations of Intake Method for a “typical” organization.
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Risk Types show subtle changes in whistleblowing report drivers
Workplace Civility again represented the greatest share of Risk Type for reports in 2024. However, the median declined slightly, from 18.2% in 2023 to 17.7% in 2024. The median of this Risk Type has grown from 15.8% in 2021. Product Quality and Safety has dropped from a four-year high median of 1.93% in 2023 to 1.75% in 2024. We note this coincides with press coverage of challenges in the aviation industry and others in 2024, so it is notable to see this drop. The median of Imminent Threat to a Person, Animals or Property increased from 1.29% in 2023 to 1.53% in 2024. Further, this Risk Type was substantiated at 90%, indicating a need to take these reports very seriously.
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Retaliation reports continue to show lowest reporting and substantiation rates – a warning sign for organizations
Retaliation reporting and substantiation rates show no improvement over the many years of our reporting. This should be a warning for organizations. Actual or perceived misconduct in this Risk Type carries an outsize impact on the trust employees and others have in the system. The median rate of reporting under the Retaliation Risk Type increased comparing 2023 (2.84%) and 2024 (3.08%). And, this category has grown in median reporting volume since 2021 which was 2.43%.
Retaliation also continues to show a low frequency of Substantiation Rate. In 2024, the Substantiation Rate was 18% compared to 16% in 2023. While up slightly, this was, by far, the lowest Substantiation Rate by frequency for any Risk Type in our analysis and is cause for ongoing concern.
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Substantiation Rate hits greatest-ever median level – a sign of progress for formal whistleblowing programs
At a median 46%, overall Substantiation Rate reached an all-time high in 2024, up from a previous record of 45% in 2023. It appears within reach that a median organization may see 50% substantiation for reports soon – a milestone that would speak multitudes for the success compliance programs are having in investigatory practices, educating reporters and enabling their ability to make a “quality” report.
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Employment Separation increases as share of known whistleblower Report Outcomes
The frequency of Employment Separation as a share of Report Outcomes for substantiated, closed cases with an identified outcome increased from 17.5% in 2023 to 20.2% in 2024. Looking back further in our data, this share of outcomes is markedly greater than the 12.4% frequency seen in 2021. Conversely, Discipline as an outcome has been declining year over year from 35.7% in 2021, to 30.7% in 2024. It is possible organizations are becoming bolder in their responses to misconduct.
Also notable is the Policy Change as a frequency of Report Outcomes has been steadily declining from 10.2% in 2021 to 7.6% in 2024. If a case indicates that a policy did not exist, or was not clear, it is important to ensure that clarification is provided as part of a root-cause analysis process.
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Company ownership type suggests different ‘speak up’ cultures
New this year, NAVEX analyzed our customer data set by company ownership. To do this, we categorized organizations into four groups: privately held organizations, public companies, education organizations, and government organizations.
Median Reports per 100 Employees is greatest for Government organizations (2.38) and lowest for Public organizations (1.10), noting that Government represents a small dataset. Private organizations saw a median 1.80 median Reports per 100 Employees.
All organizations received more reports via Web by frequency compared to Hotline, with Education showing by far the highest percentage at 60.2% via Web. Education also received the correspondingly lowest percentage of Other intake (walk-ins).
See our full report for more analysis across these four organizational ownership types.
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Conflict-of-interest related whistleblowing data reveals new insight
Disclosures per 100 Employees was at a median 3.42 in 2024. By frequency, Relationships was the most common Disclosure Category overall. Individual Contributors made up the majority of disclosures by frequency (60%), followed by Managers (33.8%) and Executives (3.3%). Not surprisingly, Executives were most likely to disclose Board Positions and Outside Investments followed by Relationships.
Key actions
Tips and key takeaways to maximize your whistleblowing program
We encourage readers to browse this report for scores of additional whistleblowing statistics and key metrics that may have relevance for their organization. However, given our overall observations, we suggest a few key actions to consider – actions that in many ways are timeless examples of how to promote an effective internal reporting program.
Conclusion
See more in full reportUse the latest whistleblowing statistics to inform and improve your program
It is always important to acknowledge there are no “right” outcomes in benchmarking data. Each organization faces a unique operating environment and culture. Our enduring hope is that these whistleblowing statistics and key metrics provide context for organizations seeking to improve – to provide reporters a means to raise concerns of misconduct without fear of Retaliation, and to form the basis of a culture of ethics and compliance.
Meet the authors
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Carrie Penman
Chief Risk and Compliance Officer
NAVEX
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Aaron Aab
Director, Product Management
NAVEX
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Eric Gneckow
Senior Content Marketing Manager
NAVEX
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Andy Harmsen
Associate Data Manager
NAVEX
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Isabella Oakes
Data Scientist Specialist
NAVEX
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Anders Olson
Senior Manager, Data Science
NAVEX
