Our stats show 2.3% IE8 users. We handle sites for major, general-market brands, so it's not skewed as it would be on a tech startup or something.

Our Energy/Utility industry news site has: 12% IE8 11% IE9

People should always run their own numbers. It can vary quite a bit from the internet-wide average.

Pretty off topic, but why would anyone ever stay on IE9? It means you are on > XP which means you should be able to upgrade to at least 10 I believe, if not 11. Is it just a lack of permissions to upgrade the browser combined with lazy administrators?

I don't know. Nearly all the IE9 users are on Win7.

If I had to guess, it's simply because upgrades are such a hassle in heavily regulated industries. (Above and beyond the typical hassles of an upgrade in any large enterprise.) I see similar numbers in Healthcare, for example, but not Education or Construction.

I keep meaning to do a blog post about the tech trends in different industries.

IE8 was 6%, which I think still validates the point. I actually chose IE9 because a lot of companies have actually dropped support on IE8 but are still supporting IE9 (mine included).

Fair enough, I guess the usage is just lower then I thought which is great news. As another commenter mentioned though it is very dependent on industry, I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprise applications have much higher IE usage.