Robotics statistics
About 14% of robot installs name no customer industry
IFR has no customer industry on file for 14% of the world's industrial robot installations. On a 2024 base of 542,076 robots, that is roughly one installation in seven that cannot be assigned to a sector.
All of IFR's shares divide that same total. Electronics 24%, automotive 23%, metal and machinery 16%, plastic and chemical 5%, food and beverage 4%, and the uncoded 14% sit in one breakdown that closes at 100% once the smaller industries are counted.
What the gap costs you is precision on the ranking. Each named industry's real share is at least what IFR prints, and electronics leads automotive by one point while fourteen points sit unassigned. This page traces the uncoded share and shows how to quote sector splits without claiming more than the classification supports.
Data covers IFR World Robotics 2025 Executive Summary; industry classification of 2024 industrial robot installations. Published 2026-07-25. Last reviewed 2026-07-25. Last updated 2026-07-25. Edited by Mike Ramsey / Reliable Media.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14% | Installations with no industry stated | [A] | High | Share of all 2024 installations IFR could not assign to a customer industry, counted in the same total as the named sectors. |
| No customer industry information | Why the gap exists | [A] | High | The IFR's stated reason for the gap. |
| 74% | Asia share of new deployments | [A] | High | Regional share, a separate cut from the industry shares. |
| 542,076 units | Global installations | [A] | High | Total installed in the operating year and the denominator behind every published share, the uncoded 14% included. |
Why the numbers disagree
A 14% uncoded slice is not noise you can wave away. IFR reports no information available on the customer industry for those units, and they sit in the same 542,076-unit denominator as everything else. That makes each named industry's share a floor: whatever those robots were bought for, they can only add to a sector's true activity.
Industry shares and regional shares are different cuts and should not be mixed. Asia took 74% of new deployments, a regional figure that is well measured, while the sector split carries the classification gap. Quoting the two side by side without saying which is which invites a reader to average things that do not belong together.
The headline count is solid; the ranking is where the softness lives. IFR knows 542,076 robots were installed. It cannot always say who bought them, and electronics leads automotive by a single point while fourteen points sit unassigned, so read the order as provisional. Unknown is not the same as evenly spread.
How to cite these figures
When you cite a sector share, add that 14% of installations carry no customer industry, so the named shares are floors. One clause covers it, and it inoculates the whole claim against a fair challenge.
Name the year and the source, and keep regional shares like Asia's 74% separate from industry shares, because the two are measured differently. Presenting them as one pie is the fastest way to get a sector number wrong.
Get the denominator right: the 14% and the sector percentages are all shares of the same 542,076 installs. The uncoded slice belongs in the same pie as the industries, so do not rebase the sector shares onto classified units only.
Where people go wrong
Rebasing the sector shares onto classified installs only. IFR's 24%, 23%, and 16% already divide the full 542,076, and recomputing them without the uncoded 14% inflates every industry by three to four points.
Presenting industry shares as exact when one robot in seven has no industry attached. Precision to the point implies a completeness the classification does not have.
Blending the 74% Asia regional share with sector percentages as if they were the same breakdown of the same question. They are different cuts, and stacking them produces a chart that misleads.
How we checked
We fetched the IFR World Robotics executive summary and confirmed the language in its text: 14% of installations with no information available on the customer industry, 74% of new deployments in Asia, and 542,076 robots installed.
We checked the denominator rather than assuming it. IFR's own unit counts by industry divide into 542,076 to give exactly the shares it prints, 24%, 23%, 16%, 5%, 4%, and 14%. Rebasing them onto classified units only would produce 27%, 27%, and 19%, which the report does not say. So the uncoded slice belongs in the same 100% as the industries.
We kept the regional figure and the industry figures in separate buckets throughout, because the most common misuse of this data is treating a well-measured regional split and a gappy sector split as one clean pie.
Full source list
Primary sources, with live links. Every figure above traces to one of these.
- [A]International Federation of Robotics / VDMA Services2025
World Robotics 2025 – Industrial Robots (Executive Summary)
https://ifr.org/img/worldrobotics/Executive_Summary_WR_2025_Industrial_Robots.pdf
Common questions
- How many robot installations have no industry listed?
- About 14% of the 542,076 robots installed in the latest operating year, which IFR reports as having no information available on the customer industry.
- Are the industry shares calculated without the unclassified units?
- No. Every share IFR publishes, the 14% included, divides the same 542,076 installs. The named industries, the smaller sectors, and the uncoded slice add to 100% together.
- Why does the gap matter for sector charts?
- Because the named industries are floors. Electronics at 24% and automotive at 23% are shares of the full total, and any uncoded robots that belong to a sector would push that sector's real share higher.
- Is the total install number affected too?
- No. The 542,076 count is solid. The uncertainty is in the sector attribution, not in how many robots were installed.
- Can I combine the 74% Asia share with the industry shares?
- Keep them separate. The regional split is well measured, while the sector split carries the classification gap, so they answer different questions.
More data, traced to source
- Where the world's new robots go: by region and by industry
Asia takes 74% of the world's new robot installations, Europe 16%, the Americas 9%. The United States installed 34,200 robots in 2024, and around 40% of them went to automotive. Where robots actually go, traced to source.
- Electronics passed automotive as the top robot buyer
The electronics industry took 24% of new robot installations and automotive 23%, so electronics was the largest customer industry again. The margin was thin. This page traces the split.
- Metal and machinery is the #3 robot industry: 16% of installs
Metal and machinery is now the third-largest customer industry for robots, at 16% of installations, up 2 points. It sits behind electronics (24%) and automotive (23%) in the latest IFR World Robotics yearbook.