Robotics · Factory Automation
Industrial Robots in Operation
Nearly 7× since 2000: 5.08 million metal arms in factories worldwide.
- 750K → 5.08M robots since 2000
- 600K+ installed per year
- China >50% of new installs
- ~3 jobs/robot lost, but contested
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) tracks every industrial robot installed in factories worldwide. Operational stock grew from ~750K in 2000 to over 5 million by 2025, with annual installations now exceeding 600,000 per year. China accounts for nearly 60% of new installations, having overtaken the US, Japan, and Germany combined. Automotive manufacturing was the historical driver; electronics and general industry now dominate. How many jobs each robot displaces is contested rather than settled: one influential study of US labour markets (Acemoglu and Restrepo, 2020) put it near three, while others find robots mostly shift the mix of work rather than erase it.
| Year | Value | Note | Projected |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 620,000 | ||
| 2000 | 750,000 | ||
| 2005 | 923,000 | ||
| 2010 | 1,059,000 | ||
| 2015 | 1,632,000 | ||
| 2018 | 2,440,000 | ||
| 2020 | 3,015,000 | ||
| 2022 | 3,904,000 | ||
| 2023 | 4,281,000 | ||
| 2024 | 4,664,000 | ||
| 2025 | 5,079,000 | 5.08M, IFR WR2026 |