U.S. Dominates Global T-shirt Consumption

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According to market research conducted by IndexBox, in 2015, global t-shirt market stood at 10,611 million units. In value terms, the market fluctuated over the period under review. It grew by 2% in 2015, amounting to 36,064 million USD at year-end. Global T-shirt market is expected to grow at an annual rate of +1.7% for the next five years, which will drive its volume to 11.5 billion units by 2020.

The U.S. (30%) was the country with the highest consumption. China held second place in the ranking with a share of 8%, followed by the U.K. (6%) and Canada (5%). Together, these three countries accounted for around 19% of total global consumption.

Among the leading consuming countries, Canada (14.1 units/year in 2015), the U.S. (9.8 units/year), and the U.K. (9.7 units/year) had the highest levels of per capita consumption, which was significantly higher than the world average of 1.4 units/year. China had the most notable rate of annual growth of per capita consumption from 2007 to 2015, with +10.2% growth.

T-shirts are a widely traded commodity, with the share of exports in total global output standing at about 96% in 2015. The high trade intensity is mainly caused by the geographical differentiation between the main T-shirt manufacturing countries and the key consuming countries.

In 2015, the volume of global exports totaled 11.3 billion units, showing mixed dynamics over the last few years. A gradual decline from 2008 to 2009 was followed by a strong growth from 2010 to 2014. In 2015, however, global exports decreased by 2%. China (3,161 million units) and Bangladesh (1,510 million units) were the main global suppliers of T-shirts, with a 41% combined share of global exports.

The volume of global imports totaled 10.2 billion units in 2015. Import dynamics were generally in line with exports, as these trade flows complement each other globally. Following the high trade intensity, the share of imports in global demand accounted for about 96%. In 2015, the U.S. (31%), and, distantly, the UK (7%), Germany (7%), Italy (4%), France (4%), Japan (3%), and Belgium (3%) were the leading destinations of T-shirt imports, together accounting for 59% of global imports in physical terms.

Do you want to know more about the global t-shirt market? Get the latest trends and insight from our report. It includes a wide range of statistics on

• t-shirt market share
• t-shirt prices
• t-shirt industry
• t-shirt sales
• t-shirt market forecast
• t-shirt price forecast
• key t-shirt producers

Source: World: T-Shirts - Market Report. Analysis and Forecast to 2025