The International Federation of Robotics publishes an annual report on the use of robots in manufacturing and services. The main report is expensive and restricted, but some highlights are free. The top panel shows robots per 10,000 workers in manufacturing industries for 2023. The panel below shows a similar figure with data for 2017. A few themes emerge:

1) Across the major manufacturing countries, the number of robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers roughly doubles, from 85 to 162.

2) The robots in China increase especially rapidly, from close to the national-level average in 2017 to almost triple the national average by 2023.

3) Robots in the US were more than double the national-level average in 2017, and less than double in 2023.

These figure are just a count, not an analysis of effects on jobs or wages. National economies focus on different kinds of manufacturing, and also are facing different demographic trends in the number of working-age adults, so one would not expect the patterns of robots to be uniform. That said, it’s perhaps worth noting that total US manufacturing jobs were 12.3 million in January 2017 and 12.9 million in December 2023, even as the number of robots per 10,000 US manufacturing workers went from 200 to 295. My own opinion is that more robots are part of the productivity-enhancing solution for a healthy US manufacturing sector.

The IFR also reports some statistics on “service robots,” which do not produce goods. At present, these are mainly in transportation/logistics (think robot vehicle scooting around warehouses and factories) and in hospitality (which refers to “food and drink preparation robots as well as social interaction robots providing mobile guidance in retail stores, museums, and other public spaces”).

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