This article attempts to identify the scale of outsourcing and its changes in the last decade. It is remarked that outsourcing has become a popular tool used to improve business efficiency. The financial crisis has not stopped the outsourcing processes, but slowed them slightly in 2009. The crisis also modified these processes in terms of their complexity, and diversified them geographically. Companies from China are still the most important suppliers of outsourcing services in the manufacturing sector, and companies from India – in the service sector. Central and East European countries, including Poland, have gained in significance.