---
title: "Data Payment Trends: 2020 vs 2021"
date: 2022-03-11T00:00:00+00:00
url: https://paymentcheck.co.uk/blog/reports/data-payment-trends-2020-vs-2021
description: "Data Payment Trends: 2020 vs 2021 - Payment practices analysis from PaymentCheck"
category: "Reports"
---

# Data Payment Trends: 2020 vs 2021

# Payment Practices See Modest Improvement: Average Score Increases from 68.4 to 71.3

## The Comparison

*   **2020:** 49 companies assessed, achieving an average payment score of 68.4 out of 100.
*   **2021:** 61 companies assessed, resulting in an average payment score of 71.3 out of 100.

## What This Means

The increase of 2.9 points indicates a slight, but not substantial, improvement in overall payment practices between 2020 and 2021. With 12 more companies evaluated in 2021, the data suggests that either new entrants had better payment practices, or existing firms made marginal improvements that contributed to the upward shift. For companies struggling to manage cash flow due to late payments, a [late payment calculator](/free-late-invoice-calculator) can help quantify the impact.

Summary: A small improvement was seen between 2020 (68.4) and 2021 (71.3) in the assessed companies' average payment scores.