Statistics European Union

General data

Metric	Value
Population:	506.85 million
GDP per capita (PPS):	36,486 Dollars
Labor force:	247.0 million
Unemployment rate:	39.4%
Fashion market share:	5 percent
Regional fashion market size:	441 billion dollars
Turnover of the textile and clothing industry:	191 billion dollars
Employment in the textiles and clothing industry:	1.6 million
Annual investment in the textile and clothing industry:	5 billion dollars
Annual investment in clothing:	1.6 billion dollars
Annual investment in textiles and man-made fibres:	3.3 billion dollars

Fashion companies

Number of companies in the textile and clothing industry: 172,755 Among these companies 119,960 companies can be addressed to as clothing companies, 52,926 are textile companies and the remaining 80 companies work on man-made fibers.

The total turnover of these companies is 191 billion euros. Nearly half of this turnover is related to textile companies, these contribute 92 billion euros. Another 87 billion euros is related to clothing companies and the remaining 9.7 billion euros is related to man-made fibre-making companies.

A couple of European countries, such as Italy, France and Spain are well-known for their renowned fashion conglomerates. The following table shows the Top 10 largest fashion companies in Europe.

	Company name	Market value	Annual sales	Country	Company type
1	Inditex	104 billion dollars	24 billion dollars	Spain	Stock listed company
2	LVMH, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy	86 billion dollars	41.5 billion dollars	France	Stock listed company
3	Hennes & Mauritz	48.5 billion dollars	26.5 billion dollars	Sweden	Stock listed company
4	Hermès	37 billion dollars	6 billion dollars	France	Stock listed company
5	Rolex SA	36 billion dollars	6 billion dollars	Switzerland	Private ownership
6	Compagnie Financière Richemont	36 billion dollars	11.5 billion dollars	Switzerland	Stock listed company
7	Chanel	33.5 billion dollars	9 billion dollars	France	Private ownership
8	Dior	32 billion dollars	2 billion dollars	France	Stock listed company
9	Luxottica	26.5 billion dollars	10.5 billion dollars	Italy	Stock listed company
10	Kering	25.5 billion dollars	13 billion dollars	France	Stock listed company

Employment

Currently 1.63 million people are employed in the textile and clothing industry. Most of these employees, 1 million people, are employed in producing at and managing clothing companies. The remaining 614,000 work on textiles and man-made fibres.

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Consumer expenditure (2014)

Metric	Value
Annual expenditure on clothing:	360 billion dollars
Annual expenditure on footwear:	81 billion dollars

Exports (2016)

Exports of apparel and textiles: 49.5 billion dollars

Clothing: 25 billion dollars

• Menswear export value: 5.8 billion dollars
• Womenswear export value: 10.1 billion dollars
• Babies wear export value: 254 billion dollars
• Other clothing and accessories export value: 9.1 billion dollars

The main clothing customers make up for 54.6 percent of the total clothing exports. Switzerland is the largest customer taking 3.8 billion dollars in textiles, which is 15.7 percent of the total European textile exports. Russia takes 3.7 billion dollars, 15.2 percent, and is therefore the second largest customer. The customers that round up the Top 5 export clients are the United States with 2.7 billion dollars (11 percent), Hong Kong with 1.6 billion dollars (6.5 percent) and Japan with 1.5 billion dollars (6 percent).

Textiles: 24.5 billion dollars

• Natural fibers export value: 981 billion dollars
• Man-made fibers export value: 981 billion dollars
• Yarns & Threads export value: 2.2 billion dollars
• Woven fabrics export value: 6.9
• Knitted fabrics export value: 1.7 billion dollars
• Technical textiles export value: 6.1 billion dollars
• Other textiles export value: 3.2 billion dollars

The main textile customers make up for 40.5 percent of the total textile exports. The United States is the biggest customer taking 2.7 billion dollars in textiles, which is 11 percent of the total European textile exports. China takes 2.1 billion dollars, 8.5 percent, and is therefore the second largest customer. The customers that round up the Top 5 export clients are Turkey with 2 billion dollars (8 percent), Switzerland with 1.6 billion dollars (7 percent) and Morocco with 1.5 billion dollars (6 percent).

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Imports (2016)

Imports of apparel and textiles: 115 billion dollars

Clothing: 84.5 billion dollars

• Menswear import value: 21.2 billion dollars
• Womenswear import value: 29.5 billion dollars
• Babies Wear import value: 2.5 billion dollars
• Other clothing and accessories import value: 31.2 billion dollars

The European Union imports most of its clothing from 5 suppliers, with China being the largest. A near 40 percent of the European imports come from China. Bangladesh supplies 14.5 percent of the European clothing imports. Another 13 percent of the supplies come from Turkey and respectively 6 and 3 percent come from India and Morocco.

Textiles: 30.5 billion dollars

• Natural fibers import value: 1.8 billion dollars
• Man-made fibers import value: 1.5 billion dollars
• Yarns & Threads import value: 4.3 billion dollars
• Woven fabrics import value: 6.1 billion dollars
• Knitted fabrics import value: 1.5 billion dollars
• Technical textiles import value: 6.4 billion dollars
• Other textiles import value: 1.2 billion dollars

The European Union imports most of its textiles from 5 suppliers, with China being the largest. About 31.5 percent of the European imports come from China. Turkey supplies 17 percent of the European textile imports. Another 9 percent of the supplies come from Turkey and respectively 8 and 4 percent come from Pakistan and the United States.

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Sources