Pearson reported £980M of remaining performance obligations at 31 Dec 2025, up 12% from a year earlier. That is 0.3 years of trailing revenue already under contract.
Over the last twelve months it turned about 408% of its opening backlog into revenue (12-month conversion).
Twelve-month book-to-bill: 1.03, i.e. 1.03 of new orders for every 1 of revenue recognised.
Backlog growth minus revenue growth: +11 points — orders are running ahead of revenue.
Pearson backlog history
Remaining performance obligations at each quarter end (bars) against trailing twelve-month revenue (line).
Amounts in GBP. Source: SEC XBRL filings.
Quarter end
Backlog (RPO)
TTM revenue
Coverage
Customer prepayments
31 Dec 2025
£980M
£3.58B
0.3 yrs
n/a
31 Dec 2024
£876M
£3.55B
0.2 yrs
n/a
31 Dec 2023
£934M
£3.67B
0.3 yrs
n/a
31 Dec 2022
£1.10B
£3.84B
0.3 yrs
n/a
31 Dec 2021
£1.06B
£3.43B
0.3 yrs
n/a
31 Dec 2020
£991M
£3.40B
0.3 yrs
n/a
31 Dec 2019
£841M
£3.87B
0.2 yrs
n/a
31 Dec 2018
£1.47B
£4.13B
0.4 yrs
n/a
Questions
What is Pearson's backlog?
Pearson reported £980M of remaining performance obligations at 31 Dec 2025, up 12% from a year earlier. That is 0.3 years of trailing revenue already under contract.
How fast does Pearson's backlog turn into revenue?
Over the last twelve months Pearson recognised revenue equal to about 408% of the backlog it started each quarter with.
About these numbers
Remaining performance obligations (RPO) are revenue a company has contracted but not yet recognised, as reported in its SEC filings (XBRL tag RevenueRemainingPerformanceObligation). Coverage = backlog ÷ trailing twelve-month revenue. Book-to-bill = (change in backlog + revenue) ÷ revenue. Conversion = revenue recognised ÷ the backlog at the start of each quarter, summed over four quarters. Counterparty values come from company filings and releases.