US industrial robot installations rise 11% to 38,000 units, says IFR

US industrial robot installations rise 11% to 38,000 units, says IFR

18 June 2026: Industrial robot installations in the United States rose 11 percent to 38,000 units in 2025, according to preliminary figures from the International Federation of Robotics. The federation says growth came from food and other non-manufacturing sectors, while the automotive industry, still the largest customer, fell 1 percent.

Not yet independently verified. The final figures from World Robotics 2026 replace the preliminary ones in the update below; IFR's own pages give different job titles for Takayuki Ito and Jane Heffner within the same month. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

Food draws level with metal and electronics

Automotive installed 13,500 robots, 1 percent below 2024, which the IFR describes as its third-best result in seven years. The gains came elsewhere. Food-industry installations grew 30 percent to about 3,000 units, level with the metal and machinery sector and with electrical and electronics, at about 3,000 each.

IFR President Takayuki Ito says: "The United States are back on the growth track." He adds that the data highlights a growing demand for flexible automation in the food industry.

Density rises two places

US robot density reached 307 robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees, eighth in the world and up two places. The IFR defines density as operational industrial robots relative to employees, which sets stock against the size of the workforce. The comparison figures from the release:

• South Korea: 1,220
• Germany: 449
• Japan: 446
• China: 166

China is the volume story. It installed 295,000 units in 2024, 54 percent of the global market. The IFR estimates that China's 2025 installations were roughly ten times the US figure, although the official number has not been published yet. Its national robotics strategy launched ten years ago, and the 15th Five-Year Plan, covering 2026 to 2030, puts robotics at the core of its industrial system, with AI research aimed at physical applications.

An American strategy proposal

The Association for Advancing Automation, known as A3 and described as North America's largest automation trade association, published a "Vision for a National Robotics Strategy" and presented it to lawmakers. It calls for:

• a Federal Robotics Office and a National Commission to coordinate policy
• harmonised government research and public-private partnerships
• market-driven tax incentives
• expanded technical workforce retraining
• updated safety standards
• a federal mandate to buy domestic robotics technology

What the IFR expects to drive demand

The federation projects resilient, long-term growth for North America's automation sector. It names reshoring of factories and a persistent shortage of skilled labour as drivers, along with demand spreading beyond traditional sectors.

Jane Heffner of the IFR was due to present preliminary North American figures at the Automate show in Chicago on Wednesday 24 June 2026 at 10:30 in the Automate Show Theatre. A robotics executive roundtable at the show listed panellists from General Motors, Teradyne, Omron Robotics, Stäubli, Robert Little Robotics Advisory and A3.

The full-year figure, three months later

The full statistics came out on 24 September in the World Robotics 2026 report. By then the IFR put US installations at almost 38,500 units, up 12 percent, the third-highest figure on record, and said the United States had overtaken Japan to become the second-largest market after China. China's 2025 installations were 354,000 units, up 20 percent and 59 percent of global deployments. Japan installed 36,219 units, down 19 percent. The global operational stock of industrial robots reached a record 5 million.

Sources

• IFR press release: US robot industry returns to double-digit growth, 18 June 2026
• IFR press release: five million robots now operate in factories globally, 24 September 2026
• IFR news: World Robotics 2026, final 2025 installation figures - 24 September 2026