Robotics
High robot density in Germany
According to the International Federation of Robotics, Germany is one of the top automated economies in the world: robot density in the manufacturing sector rose to 415 installed industrial robots per 10,000 employees - a record!
This puts the German economy in third place behind South Korea (1,012 units) and Singapore (730 units). These are the findings of the World Robotics 2023 report by the International Federation of Robotics. "Robot density is an important indicator for measuring the current state of automation - it allows regions and countries to be compared with each other," says Marina Bill, President of the International Federation of Robotics. "The pace of automation is impressive: at 151 robots per 10,000 employees, the average robot density worldwide has reached an all-time high and more than doubled the result from six years ago."
EU ahead of Asia
Asia has a robot density of 168 units per 10,000 employees in the manufacturing industry. Within the region, the economies of South Korea, Singapore, Japan, mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are among the top 10 automated countries in the world. The European Union has a robot density of 208 units per 10,000 employees, with Germany, Sweden and Switzerland among the international top 10. The robot density in North America is 188 units per 10,000 employees. The United States is also one of the leading robot users in the manufacturing industry in tenth place.
The Republic of Korea is the leader in the use of industrial robots. The Korean economy benefits from two major user industries - a strong electronics industry and a strong automotive industry. Singapore follows in second place with 730 robots per 10,000 employees - but has a comparatively low number of employees in the manufacturing industry overall. Germany (415 robots per 10,000 employees) is in third place worldwide. Robot density in Europe's largest economy has increased by an average of 5% per year since 2017.
Japan follows in fourth place (397 units). The robot density of the largest manufacturer of industrial robots rose by an average of 7% each year (2017-2022). China moved up to fifth place two years ago and can maintain this position in 2022. The country's massive investment in automation technology has led to a high robot density of 392 robots per 10,000 employees - despite a huge workforce of around 38 million in the manufacturing industry. Robot density in the United States rose from 274 units in 2021 to 285 in 2022, making the country tenth in the world.
Robot density is the number of operational industrial robots in relation to the number of employees. It can represent the entire manufacturing industry or only certain branches of industry. The number of employees serves as a measure of the economic size, so that the quotient of the number of companies and employees puts the number of companies on a uniform basis.
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