Robotics market
Korea's robot industry passed 6 trillion won in sales in 2024
Korea's robot industry passed 6 trillion won in sales in 2024, about 6.1695 trillion won, spread across 2,509 companies, with production of 5.9447 trillion won.
Korea is the country with the highest robot density in the world, so its home robot industry is worth knowing, yet its figures rarely appear in English-language coverage.
This page traces the sales, production, and firm-count figures to the Korean government survey they come from, and is clear about the source path and the currency.
Data covers Korean robot industry survey, 2024 (KIRIA, via trade press). Last reviewed by a human editor before publication.
The figures and where they come from
Each figure is rated for how safely you can cite it today. Ratings judge current usability, not whether a number was ever correct.
| Figure | What it is | Source | Citation Confidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.1695 trillion won | Robot industry sales (2024) | [A] | Medium | Total Korean robot industry sales in 2024, up 3.2%, the first time past 6 trillion won. Roughly 4 to 4.5 billion US dollars at recent exchange rates (an approximate conversion, not a source figure). |
| 5.9447 trillion won | Robot industry production (2024) | [A] | Medium | Korean robot industry production value in 2024, up 4.5%. |
| 2,509 firms | Robot companies surveyed | [A] | Medium | The number of Korean robot companies covered by the survey. A read on the breadth of the domestic industry. |
Why the numbers disagree
Korea's world-leading robot density describes how many robots its factories use, not how big its robot-making industry is, and the two are easy to conflate. This page is about the latter: the domestic industry that builds and sells robots, worth about 6 trillion won in sales across 2,509 firms.
The figures reach English readers through a translation and a trade-press restatement of a government survey, which is worth stating plainly. The underlying survey is Korean-language and its full report is not cleanly fetchable, so the numbers here trace to the trade-press account that carries them verbatim.
Currency is the other caution. The figures are in Korean won; a dollar conversion depends on the exchange rate and is approximate. We quote won and treat any dollar figure as a rough aid, not a sourced number.
How to cite these figures
Cite the figures in won: about 6.1695 trillion in sales and 5.9447 trillion in production in 2024, across 2,509 firms, from the KIRIA survey.
Keep density and industry size separate. Korea leading the world in robot density is a different fact from the size of its robot-making industry.
If you convert to dollars, mark it as approximate and note the exchange-rate dependence; the source figure is in won.
Where people go wrong
Confusing Korea's robot density with its robot-industry size. Density is about robot use in factories; this is about the industry that makes them.
Presenting a dollar figure as the source number. The survey reports won; any dollar amount is an approximate conversion.
Treating the trade-press figure as a primary document. It faithfully carries the KIRIA survey numbers, but it is a restatement, which we disclose.
How we checked
The figures come from KIRIA's annual robot-industry survey, reported by a Korean robotics trade publication. We retrieved the trade-press article and confirmed the sales, production, and firm-count figures appear in its text in Korean.
We cite the trade-press account because the full KIRIA report is not cleanly fetchable for verification, while this article carries the exact figures. We disclose that path rather than implying direct access to the primary survey.
Because the source is Korean-language and won-denominated, we quote the won figures as given and treat any dollar conversion as approximate, to avoid asserting an exchange-rate-dependent number as fact.
Full source list
Primary sources, with live links. Every figure above traces to one of these.
- [A]The Robot News (Korea), reporting KIRIA survey dataJanuary 2026
KIRIA (Korea Institute for Robot Industry Advancement) annual robot industry survey, 2024, reported by The Robot News (Korea)
https://www.irobotnews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=44544
Common questions
- How big is Korea's robot industry?
- Korean robot industry sales passed 6 trillion won in 2024, about 6.1695 trillion, across 2,509 companies, with production of 5.9447 trillion won, according to the KIRIA survey reported in Korean trade press.
- Is this the same as Korea's robot density?
- No. Robot density measures how many robots Korean factories use, where Korea leads the world. This is the size of the industry that makes and sells robots, a different figure.
- What is that in US dollars?
- Roughly 4 to 4.5 billion dollars at recent exchange rates, but that is an approximate conversion. The source reports the figures in Korean won.
- Where do these numbers come from?
- A Korean government survey by KIRIA, carried in Korean robotics trade press. We cite the trade-press account because it carries the exact figures and the full survey report is not cleanly fetchable.
More data, traced to source
- Japan's robot factories: 176,215 built and 182,464 ordered in 2024
Japan is the world's dominant maker of industrial robots. In 2024 its makers built 176,215 units and took orders for 182,464, both down from 2023. The source figures, in units and yen.
- China builds most of the world's robots: 556,000 made in 2024
China produced 556,000 industrial robots in 2024, up 14.2%, and installed 295,000 of the world's new ones. The country both makes and buys more robots than anywhere else, traced to the source figures.
- Robot density statistics and where they come from
The most-cited robot density figures are stale. Here are the current numbers, where each one comes from, and why the global average fell while automation kept rising.