CO Data

The Size of the Global Fashion Retail Market

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Key Takeaways
  • The global apparel market – not including footwear or jewellery – is worth $1.34 trillion a year in retail sales.
  • Womenswear accounts for more than half (53%) of that spending.
  • Ten national markets dominate retail, notching up 69% of all fashion sales, with the USA and China seeing the most spending.
  • Future growth in these markets is forecast to be modest or declining, except for India.

The apparel market today is worth around $1.3 trillion in retail sales globally per year1. The fashion retail sector alone – just clothes, not footwear or jewellery – is just a bit bigger than the Russian economy, or roughly equivalent to the combined GDP of the world’s 126 poorest countries2.

Womenswear makes up more than half (53%) of global retail spending – or roughly $689 billion. By comparison, spending on men’s clothes and children’s clothes is relatively modest – 31% or $403 billion an…