The International Federation of Robotics counts 1,220 operational industrial robots for every 10,000 manufacturing employees in Korea, the highest of any country in its 2024 data, against a world average of 132. Here are the ten most robot-dense economies, China's revised position and what the measure does and doesn't say about factory jobs.
As of · Source: International Federation of Robotics, World Robotics 2025 (2024 data)1
| Rank | Economy | Robots per 10,000 employees, 2024 | Relative to #1 | Previous edition, 2023 | Previous edition rank | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Republic of Korea | 1,220 | 1,012 | 1 | 1, 2 | |
| 2 | Singapore | 818 | 770 | 2 | 1, 2 | |
| 3 | Germany | 449 | 429 | 4 | 1, 2 | |
| 4 | Japan | 446 | 419 | 5 | 1, 2 | |
| 5 | Sweden | 377 | — | — | 1 | |
| 6 | Denmark | 329 | — | — | 1 | |
| 7 | Slovenia | 315 | — | — | 1 | |
| 8 | United States | 307 | 295 | 10 | 1, 2 | |
| 9 | Chinese Taipei | 302 | — | — | 1 | |
| 10 | Switzerland | 294 | — | — | 1 | |
| 22 | China Revised: updated labor data | 166 | 470 | 3 | 1, 2 |
Metric: operational industrial robots per 10,000 persons employed in manufacturing, as the IFR defines robot density.1 Ranks 1 to 10 are the IFR's published top ten for 2024; its release publishes no ranks for 11 to 21, so none are shown, and China's 22nd place is the IFR's own statement. Figures are the IFR's, which collects robot counts from robot makers and takes employment from national statistics, and none is independently measured by us. "Previous edition" figures are from the IFR's November 20, 2024 release (World Robotics 2024, 2023 data)2; they are shown only where that release stated them, and the two editions are not strictly comparable. Most notably, the 2024 edition says China's figure is "based on updated labor market data issued by China's National Bureau of Statistics", so China's fall from 470 (3rd) to 166 (22nd) reflects a revised denominator, not fewer robots.12 Robots counted are industrial robots, which is not the same as AI-driven systems; see "What the measure does and doesn't show".
Korea has the highest robot density in the world at 1,220 industrial robots per 10,000 employees, growing by 7% a year on average since 2019.1 The IFR ties this to its electronics and automotive industries, the two largest customers for industrial robots.1 The previous edition put Korea at 1,012 for 2023.2 The IFR's 2026 release also says Korea installed 30,000 units in 2025, down 1%, with annual installations trending sideways around 31,000 since 2019.3
Germany ranks third with 449, growing by 5% a year since 2019, and is Europe's largest economy.1 Its density was 429 in the previous edition, when it ranked fourth.2 Germany's installations fell 8% to fewer than 25,000 units in 2025, and the automotive industry, its largest user of industrial robots, has a declining share of them, according to the IFR.3
Japan is fourth with 446, growing by 5% a year since 2019; the IFR calls it the predominant robot-manufacturing country.1 It had 419 in the previous edition.2 Japan installed 36,219 units in 2025, a 19% decrease, and the IFR says its market moved from second to third place globally, behind the United States.3
The United States ranks eighth with 307, up from 295 and tenth in the previous edition.12 The IFR says US installations grew 12% to almost 38,500 units in 2025, the third highest number in its statistics, and that the US passed Japan to become the second largest market for industrial robots, after China.3
Chinese Taipei is ninth with 302; the IFR lists it, with Korea, Singapore and Japan, among the top ten most automated economies in Asia.1
China has the world's largest operational stock of industrial robots, around 2 million units, which the IFR says is approximately 4.5 times Japan's, in second place, and 54% of all robots installed worldwide in 2024 (295,000 units) went to China.1 Yet its density is 166, 22nd worldwide, because the denominator is the biggest manufacturing workforce in the world: the IFR says this is a "large country with a huge manufacturing workforce" that "requires a significant operational stock" to reach a high density.1 The previous edition had put China third with 470, up from 402 a year earlier; the new edition's figure uses updated labor-market data from China's National Bureau of Statistics.12 In 2025 China installed 354,000 units, 59% of the global total, according to the IFR's World Robotics 2026 report.3
The IFR puts the global average at 132 for 2024, the EU-27 at 231, Western Europe at a record 267, North America at 204 and Asia at 131.1 Western Europe's density increased 3% year on year, North America's 4% and Asia's 11%.1 The table gives the previous edition's figures alongside.
As of · Source: International Federation of Robotics12
| Region or economy | 2024 (World Robotics 2025) | 2023 (World Robotics 2024) |
|---|---|---|
| World average | 132 | 162 |
| European Union (EU-27) | 231 | 219 |
| Western Europe | 267 | — |
| North America | 204 | 197 |
| Asia | 131 | 182 |
| Canada | 241 | — |
| Mexico | 62 | — |
Robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees as stated by the IFR; "—" means the IFR's release did not state that figure. Canada and Mexico are given without a world rank. The IFR does not say whether the world and regional averages for 2023 were restated after the China labor-data update, so the two columns should not be subtracted.12
The IFR defines robot density as the number of operational industrial robots relative to the number of employees, which it says can cover the whole manufacturing industry or just specific branches; the employee count serves as a measure of economic size.1 It is a barometer of how far manufacturing has automated, not a measure of how many jobs robots have done or removed: the same ratio can rise because stock grows or because the workforce shrinks, and the table shows it can fall when the workforce figure is revised. It also says nothing about which tasks the robots do or which workers, and the data is by country, not by occupation.
It is also not, by itself, a measure of AI. Industrial robots are a long-established technology, and the IFR's 2026 report says that advances in artificial intelligence, machine vision and sensing are now "increasing robot capabilities", while easier programming and system integration reduce deployment costs.3 Where AI-driven robots such as humanoids actually do factory and warehouse work, with each case graded, see our feature on humanoid robots in warehouses and factories. For the IFR's newest total, its 2026 report puts the global operational stock of industrial robots at a record 5 million units in 2025, up 9%, with more than 600,000 installed in the year, up 11%; the 2025 robot densities that go with it had not been published when this was checked.3
