Europe has world’s highest robot density, but Asia is growing faster
10 April 2026 
Western Europe has the highest concentration of industrial robots of any region of the world – with 267 robots per 10,000 manufacturing employees – according to figures just released by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) for 2024. This puts Europe ahead of North America on 204 and Asia on 131.
But Asia is the fastest-adopting region with an 11% increase in its robot density between 2023 and 2024 – compared to 4% growth in North America and 3% in Europe. Helping to drive the Asian figures is the fact that South Korea has the world’s highest robot density with 1,220 robots per 10,000 employees (growing by 7% on average annually since 2019), followed by Singapore with 818 robots per 10,000 workers.
In its World Robotics 2025 report, the IFR points out that Singapore is a small country with a small number of manufacturing employees, so achieves a high robot density with a relatively small operational stock. The country’s robot density had been expanding by 13% annually since 2019.
Korea, Singapore, Japan and Taiwan are among the top ten most automated nations worldwide.
Although China ranks 22nd globally in terms of its robot density, with 166 robots for every 10,000 people employed in manufacturing, this figure is 7% up on the previous year. And more than half (54%) of all robots installed worldwide in 2024 were deployed in China, which commissioned 295,000 new machines. It now has the world’s biggest stock of industrial robots with around 2 million machines – about 4.5 times more than Japan, in second place.
Eight European countries are in the global top 20 for robot adoption – Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Austria, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg, France and Spain. The European Union has a density of 231 robots per 10,000 workers – putting it above the global average of 132.
Germany has 449 robots per 10,000 employees (making it the third most dense nation on earth) and its robot density has expanded by 5% per year since 2019.
The UK languishes is 24th position globally with a robot density of 104 industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers. This puts it below the global average of 132.
In 2024, North America´s robot density rose by 4% in 2024. The US ranks eighth worldwide with 307 robots per 10,000 employees, with Canada in 13th position (on 241).
