# IFR counted 2,027,000 industrial robots working in Chinese factories, with 295,000 installed in 2024 — 54% of global demand and the highest annual figure ever recorded

Page: https://flyvolo.ai/en/changes/ev-20250925-assembly-line-worker-3
Date: 2025-09-25 · Stage: Deployment
Can this record move a task judgement? yes
Occupation: https://flyvolo.ai/en/careers/assembly-line-worker

## Scope

China, from the industry federation's own annual statistics. The stock doubled in three years, passing 1 million in 2021. Installations are concentrated: electrical and electronics took 83,000 units (64% of that industry's global installations), metal and machinery rose 31% to 54,600, while automotive fell 12% to 57,200. The labour-intensive sectors are the striking part — textiles, leather and apparel installed 5,700 units and China accounted for 95% of global installations in that category. Domestic suppliers outsold foreign ones at home for the first time, 57% in 2024 against 47% in 2023. These are robot counts, not headcount: the release says nothing about how many line workers those factories employ.

## Source

- International Federation of Robotics — World Robotics 2025, China press release (first-party) — https://ifr.org/downloads/press_docs/2025-09-25-IFR_press_release_China_in_English.pdf (primary source)

## What this means

Half the world new industrial robots are installed in one country, and the stock there doubled in three years. The part that bears on this job is where they went: textiles, leather and apparel took 5,700 units and 95% of the world installations in that category happened in China. Those are the sectors that industrialised on cheap labour, and they are the ones now buying the machines.

## What it does not show yet

Robot counts are not headcount. A line that adds robots can keep, cut or grow its crew depending on what happens to output, and this release reports none of that. The automotive figure is the reminder: installations there fell 12% in the same year, so the machines follow the product cycle as much as they follow labour cost.

## How to verify it yourself

On your own line, count how many stations were added or removed in the last two years and ask what happened to shift output over the same period. A station replaced while output rose is a different fact from a station replaced while output was flat, and only the second one is about labour cost.


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