Business continuity planning has moved from a back-office concern to a boardroom priority. Every year, thousands of companies face operational disruptions that threaten their survival. Cyberattacks are escalating in frequency and sophistication. Natural disasters are growing more destructive.
Yet beneath this rising threat landscape lies a striking disconnect: most organizations acknowledge the importance of continuity planning, but far fewer actually invest in building, testing, and maintaining effective plans. The data paints a clear picture of what happens when they don’t.
This article draws on data from government agencies, leading research firms, and industry surveys to present a comprehensive picture of business continuity in 2026. The statistics reveal patterns that challenge assumptions, quantify the true cost of inaction, and make a compelling case for why every organization needs a plan.
The Cost of Doing Nothing
The consequences of operating without a business continuity plan are severe and well-documented. When a major disruption strikes — whether a fire, a flood, a ransomware attack, or a prolonged power failure — the businesses without a plan are the ones that close their doors permanently. The statistics on post-disaster survival are sobering.
Failure rates after a disaster:
40% of businesses do not reopen after a disaster, and another 25% fail within one year (FEMA)
90% of small businesses never reopen after being struck by a disaster (SBA)
Businesses that cannot resume operations within five days have a 90% failure rate within one year (FEMA)
Nearly 600,000 businesses close each year in the United States due to a range of disruptions
Despite these figures, preparedness levels remain alarmingly low. A global survey found that more than half of all companies did not have any form of business continuity plan in place, and among small businesses the situation is even worse.
Preparedness gaps:
51% of companies worldwide did not have a business continuity plan as of 2020
Only 30% of small firms have a business continuity strategy, compared to 54% of mid-sized and 73% of large corporations (Databarracks)
70% of SMEs believe their cybersecurity measures are sufficient, but only 20% have comprehensive BC plans
57% of organizations that experience a business disruption do not have a continuity plan in place
When disruptions do occur, the financial toll accumulates rapidly. For large enterprises, a single hour of downtime can cost millions. For smaller companies, even a brief interruption can be devastating.
The financial toll:
$300,000+ per hour in losses for 90% of mid-to-large enterprises (ITIC 2024)
$1 million to $5 million per hour for 41% of enterprises during outages
$14,056 per minute is the average cost of unplanned downtime per organization (2024 IT Outages report)
Just one hour of downtime can cost $10,000 for a small business and over $5 million for larger companies (Datto)
Smaller organizations can lose over $25,000 per hour of downtime
Downtime and Outages Are Getting Worse
Disruptions are not black swan events. They are a routine feature of modern business operations. According to a 2025 survey, organizations experienced an average of 86 outages per year, with more than half reporting weekly incidents. Every one of those outages carries a cost — in lost revenue, damaged reputation, and strained customer relationships.
Outage frequency:
84% of companies experienced an increase in network outages over the past two years (Opengear)
Organizations experienced an average of 86 outages per year in 2025
55% reported weekly outages; 14% reported outages every single day
100% of 1,000 senior technology executives surveyed said their companies lost revenue due to IT outages in the previous year
Companies with more frequent incidents face financial losses 16 times higher than those with fewer outages (LogicMonitor)
In data centers — the infrastructure backbone for businesses of all sizes — power failures remain the single largest cause of disruption. The Uptime Institute’s 2024 survey confirmed that more than half of all data center outages trace back to power issues, a problem that is largely outside the control of the businesses that depend on those facilities.
Data center outages:
54% of data center outages were caused by power failures (Uptime Institute 2024)
12% were caused by network failures; 11% by hardware and software failures
More than half of respondents said their most recent significant outage cost over $100,000
Technology failures are not the only culprit. Human error — from accidental data deletion to misconfigured systems — remains one of the most persistent and underestimated causes of business disruption.
Human error:
Human error is the second most common cause of downtime after security issues (ITIC 2024)
More than two-thirds of companies experienced downtime caused by inadvertent data loss, device mismanagement, or other accidents
54% of businesses experienced a downtime incident in the past five years lasting at least eight hours (DataCore)
Ransomware: The Fastest-Growing Threat to Continuity
No single threat has reshaped the business continuity landscape more dramatically than ransomware. What began as a nuisance targeting individuals has evolved into a sophisticated criminal enterprise that routinely brings hospitals, manufacturers, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies to a standstill. The financial damage is immense and still accelerating.
Financial impact:
The average cost of a ransomware attack in 2024 reached $5.13 million, projected to rise to $5.5–$6 million in 2025
By 2031, global ransomware costs are projected to exceed $20 billion per month (Cybersecurity Ventures)
The average recovery cost excluding ransom payments was $2.73 million in 2024 (Sophos)
The global average cost of a data breach fell to $4.44 million in 2025, the first decline in five years (IBM)
Recovery from a ransomware attack is painfully slow. The average company faces nearly a month of disruption, during which operations are degraded or halted entirely. For many organizations, particularly smaller ones, this length of downtime is existential.
Recovery timelines:
Average downtime following a ransomware attack: 24 days (Statista)
Less than 7% of companies recover within a day (Sophos 2024)
More than one-third of organizations took longer than a month to recover, up from 24% the prior year
The global average breach lifecycle was 241 days in 2024 (IBM)
Ransom demands continue to climb, and the largest payments now reach into the tens of millions of dollars. Even organizations that choose to pay often discover that the money does not buy a complete recovery.
Ransom demands and payments:
Median ransom demand in 2025: $1.32 million (Sophos)
Median ransom payment in 2025: $1 million
In 2024, 63% of demands exceeded $1 million; 30% exceeded $5 million
The largest confirmed payment: $75 million to the Dark Angels group by a Fortune 50 company
Perhaps the most alarming development in the ransomware landscape is the systematic targeting of backup systems. Attackers understand that backups are the last line of defense, and they have adapted their strategies accordingly. Organizations that believed their backup systems would protect them are discovering that those systems were compromised alongside everything else.
Backup targeting:
96% of ransomware attacks now attempt to infect backup repositories (2024 Ransomware Trends Report)
84% of organizations that paid a ransom in Q4 2024 failed to fully recover their data (Halcyon)
Nearly 80% of organizations that paid experienced a subsequent attack
58% of backups fail during recovery due to outdated technology, inadequate testing, or malware
The human toll is often overlooked in the financial headlines, but it is real and significant. IT and security teams bear the brunt of the crisis, and the psychological impact lingers long after systems are restored.
Human impact:
44% of IT/security staff reported stress and anxiety about future attacks (Sophos)
44% experienced absences due to stress or mental health issues
37% felt guilty for not stopping the attack
Cybersecurity and Business Continuity Converge
For decades, cybersecurity and business continuity operated as separate disciplines with separate teams and separate budgets. That era is over. The rise of ransomware, cloud-based attacks, and AI-powered threats has forced organizations to recognize that protecting data and maintaining operational continuity are two sides of the same coin.
Cyber threats as a continuity risk:
44% of organizations identify cybersecurity as the biggest threat to business continuity (ZipDo)
41% of organizations experienced a cyberattack that directly impacted their continuity in the past year
The average cost of a cyberattack on small businesses: $120,000 to $1.24 million per incident (Mastercard)
28% of data breaches affected small businesses; 83% were financially motivated (Verizon)
Almost half of all data breaches now occur in the cloud
80% of companies experienced at least one cloud security incident in the last year
Organizations are responding with increased investment, though it remains to be seen whether spending keeps pace with the threat. The majority of enterprises plan to increase their budgets across disaster recovery, cyber resilience, and insurance in the coming year.
Investment in resilience:
58% of organizations plan to increase investment in cyber resilience in the next 12 months
78% plan to increase IT disaster recovery budgets
65% plan to increase spending on cybersecurity insurance
Artificial intelligence is transforming both sides of the cybersecurity equation. Defenders are deploying AI to detect and respond to threats faster, but attackers are leveraging the same technology to make their campaigns more convincing and harder to stop.
AI and the evolving threat landscape:
80% of ransomware attacks now leverage AI tools, from deepfake scams to AI-generated phishing (MIT 2025)
82.6% of phishing emails in 2025 contained AI-generated content (KnowBe4)
41% of ransomware families include AI-driven components to adapt payloads and evade defenses
Cloud Adoption, Backup Gaps, and Data Protection
Cloud technology has become the foundation of modern business continuity. The vast majority of organizations now store their data and backups in the cloud, and the shift has accelerated dramatically in the past decade. But cloud adoption has introduced new categories of risk, and many organizations have discovered that moving data to the cloud does not automatically mean it is protected.
Cloud adoption:
84% of businesses store data and backups in the cloud; another 8% plan to within the next year
Nearly two-thirds of all corporate data is now cloud-stored, double the amount from 2015
68% of SMEs consider cloud disaster recovery essential
The gap between backup adoption and backup reliability is one of the most consequential findings in the data. While the overwhelming majority of organizations back up their data, a startling percentage of those backups fail when they are needed most.
Backup reliability and gaps:
~91% of organizations use some form of data backup, but 58% of backups fail during recovery
35% of organizations would not know if backups were skipped or missed
25% of workloads lack policies that limit unauthorized access to backups
Only 33% use dedicated password managers to protect backup credentials
Businesses spending 3+ hours weekly on backups jumped from 5% in 2022 to 23% in 2024
Organizations using backups to recover from ransomware incurred a median cost of $750,000 vs. the $3 million average ransom demand (Sophos)
The Power of Planning and Testing
The data overwhelmingly supports one conclusion: organizations that invest in business continuity planning and test those plans regularly recover faster, experience fewer disruptions, and maintain stronger customer relationships. The difference between companies with tested plans and those without is not marginal — it is dramatic.
What planning delivers:
Businesses with a tested plan are 2.5x more likely to recover quickly from a disaster
74% of companies that test regularly experience fewer disruptions
90% of companies that recover quickly have an established communication plan
Cloud-based DR solutions can reduce recovery time by up to 70%
81% of companies say their BC efforts helped maintain customer trust after disruptions
Yet the gap between intention and execution remains wide. Most organizations say continuity planning is a top priority, but far fewer follow through with regular testing and review. The failure rate of disaster recovery tests — roughly one in three — suggests that many plans would not hold up under real-world conditions.
Where the gaps persist:
Only 23% of organizations regularly review their BC plan to incorporate new threats
The failure rate of disaster recovery testing is approximately 35%
25% of companies experienced a data breach during their BC testing procedures
56% of businesses lack a defined procedure for evaluating third-party BC preparedness
Only 34% of small businesses are confident they could survive a disaster
75% call BC planning a top priority, and 82% say employees at all levels should be involved
A Rapidly Growing Market
The scale of investment in business continuity solutions reflects the urgency that organizations feel. The market has grown rapidly over the past several years and shows no signs of slowing, driven by the rising frequency of cyber threats, natural disasters, and regulatory requirements.
The global BC management market reached $754 million in 2024 and is projected to hit $2.26 billion by 2033 at a 13% CAGR (IMARC Group)
The DR and BC data center interconnect market was valued at $5.39 billion in 2024, projected to reach $10.61 billion by 2030 at 12.7% CAGR (Grand View Research)
North America dominates the market, driven by digital transformation, rising cyber threats, and regulatory compliance
Increasing frequency of natural disasters, cyberattacks, and geopolitical instability continues to drive investment globally
Industry-Specific Impact
Ransomware and other disruptions do not affect all industries equally. Certain sectors — particularly those handling sensitive data, operating complex supply chains, or serving critical public functions — face disproportionate risk. Healthcare consistently ranks as the most expensive industry for data breaches, while manufacturing and government face some of the highest attack volumes.
Healthcare:
Most expensive industry for breaches, averaging $7.42 million per breach in 2025 (IBM)
54% of healthcare organizations reported ransomware attacks by mid-2025
Healthcare accounted for 18.6% of U.S. ransomware attacks in Q3 2024
Manufacturing and Retail:
Manufacturing comprised 29% of all global ransomware cases in Q1 2024, with nearly double the year-on-year increase
Some retail chains reported ransom demands upward of $2.73 million
Government and Education:
Over 330 ransomware incidents have targeted U.S. government entities since 2018, with estimated downtime costs of $70 billion
Education sector average breach cost rose to $3.80 million in 2025 (IBM)
Since 2020, 1,681 higher education facilities have been affected by 84 ransomware attacks
Supply Chain Vulnerabilities
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed deep fragility in global supply chains, and the aftershocks continue to reverberate. Organizations have learned — often the hard way — that their continuity is only as strong as the weakest link in their supply chain. A disruption at a single vendor or logistics provider can cascade through an entire operation.
66% of organizations report supply chain disruptions as a major component of their risk management
44% of businesses want to update or increase their use of governance, risk, and compliance software
Natural catastrophes are the third-most concerning risk to businesses today, behind cyber incidents and business interruption (Allianz 2025)
The Bottom Line: Act Now or Pay Later
The statistics in this article tell a consistent story. Disruptions are growing more frequent, more expensive, and more difficult to recover from. The businesses that survive are the ones that planned ahead — that built continuity plans, tested them under realistic conditions, and updated them to account for emerging threats.
The gap between awareness and action remains dangerously wide. Most organizations acknowledge the importance of business continuity, but too few test their plans, review them regularly, or extend them to cover emerging threats like AI-powered cyberattacks and supply chain dependencies. The cost of inaction is measured not just in dollars but in shuttered businesses, lost jobs, and eroded trust.
For any organization that has not yet built or tested a comprehensive business continuity plan, the time to act is now. As FEMA’s data makes clear: once a disaster strikes, the window for survival is measured in days, not months. The data makes the case far more persuasively than any consultant ever could.