Sewing spans household creativity, quilting, tailoring, apparel production and textile disposal. The figures below cover England, the United States, and the United States and Canada across different periods and definitions, so participation estimates should not be read as measures of sewing alone.
Key Sewing Statistics
The most quotable sewing statistics in this overview are:
- In 2016/17, 14% of adults in England did textile crafts such as embroidery, crocheting or knitting during the previous 12 months.
- In 2016/17, 64% of English textile-craft participants practiced at least monthly.
- In 2012, 13.2% of U.S. adults did weaving, crocheting, quilting, needlepoint, knitting or sewing during the previous year.
- In 2024, an estimated 30 million active sewists lived in the United States and Canada.
- In 2024, the quilting industry was estimated to have 9–11 million active participants in the United States and Canada.
- The United States and Canada quilt market was forecast to reach $5 billion by 2027 in a 2024 industry survey.
- In 2024, 98% of surveyed quilters identified as female.
- In 2024, 70% of surveyed quilters were retired.
- In May 2023, the United States had 14,950 tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers.
- In May 2023, the mean U.S. annual wage for tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers was $40,190.
- In May 2023, the median U.S. hourly wage for tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers was $17.62.
- For 2024–2034, annual U.S. openings were projected at 9.8 thousand for sewing machine operators.
- For 2024–2034, tailor, dressmaker and custom sewer employment was projected to fall 9.3% in the United States.
- In 2023, the United States had 3,430 employer establishments in cut-and-sew apparel manufacturing.
- In 2018, U.S. textile municipal solid waste generation was estimated at 17.030 million tons.
- In 2018, the U.S. textile recycling rate was estimated at 14.7%.
- In 2018, U.S. landfills received an estimated 11.300 million tons of textiles.
Contents
- Key Sewing Statistics
- Sewing and Textile-Craft Participation Statistics
- Quilting and Sewing Hobby Trends
- U.S. Sewing and Tailoring Wage Statistics
- Sewing-Related Employment Outlook
- Apparel Manufacturing and Sewing Industry Data
- Textile Waste and Recycling Statistics
Sewing and Textile-Craft Participation Statistics
Participation data are useful for showing the reach of textile making, but the available measures are broader than sewing. England’s 2016/17 Arts Council survey grouped embroidery, crocheting and knitting with textile crafts, while the U.S. measure also included weaving, quilting, needlepoint and knitting.
- The official Taking Part focus on: Arts report found that 14% of adults in England did textile crafts during the previous 12 months in 2016/17.
- In the same England period, 14% of adults did painting, drawing, printmaking or sculpture, providing a comparison arts category.
- Also in 2016/17, 12% of adults in England played a musical instrument for pleasure during the previous 12 months.
- 9% of English adults did photography as an artistic activity during the same period.
Among people who participated, textile crafts were often recurring activities rather than one-time experiences. The survey reported the frequency measure with a 95% confidence interval, which describes survey precision rather than the quantity of sewing performed.
- 64% of English adults who did textile crafts practiced at least monthly in 2016/17.
- 64% of participants in painting, drawing, printmaking or sculpture also did so at least monthly in 2016/17.
A separate 2012 U.S. estimate reported that 13.2% of adults had done weaving, crocheting, quilting, needlepoint, knitting or sewing during the previous year. This is a composite category and was presented as a secondary presentation of National Endowment for the Arts data, so it is not directly equivalent to England’s textile-craft measure.
Quilting and Sewing Hobby Trends
Industry survey figures provide a more recent view of sewing-related hobbies in the United States and Canada, but they use terms such as “active sewist” and “active participant” that are not standardized population measures.
| 2024 industry estimate or survey finding | Figure | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Active sewists | 30 million | United States and Canada |
| Active quilting participants | 9–11 million | United States and Canada |
| Active creatives | 85 million | United States and Canada |
| Sales represented by active creatives | More than $35 billion | United States and Canada |
The Quilting Trends Survey Results 2024 estimated 30 million active sewists and 9–11 million active quilting participants. The quilting figure is narrower than sewing, while the active-creative measure is broader: it refers to a person who made a creative project during the prior year.
The same 2024 survey forecast the quilt market at $5 billion by 2027 for the United States and Canada. That is a forecast, not an observed 2027 result.
Surveyed quilters also had a distinctive respondent profile: 98% identified as female, 70% were retired, the average respondent began quilting regularly at age 48, and the average respondent had sewn for 22 years. These are characteristics of survey respondents, not probability-sample estimates for every quilter.
U.S. Sewing and Tailoring Wage Statistics
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics groups alteration, repair and fitting work within the occupation “tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers.” Its May 2023 estimates show both the size of this occupational group and a wide wage distribution.
| May 2023 U.S. measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Employment | 14,950 people |
| Mean hourly wage | $19.32 |
| Mean annual wage | $40,190 |
| Median hourly wage | $17.62 |
| 10th-percentile hourly wage | $13.25 |
| 90th-percentile hourly wage | $26.83 |
The BLS Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2023 estimates place the mean annual wage at $40,190 and the median hourly wage at $17.62. The 10th-percentile hourly wage was $13.25, compared with $26.83 at the 90th percentile; these are wage estimates, not prices charged by independent sewing businesses.
Employment was distributed across several settings. Clothing and clothing-accessories retailers employed 4,490 tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers; personal and household goods repair and maintenance employed 2,660; and cut-and-sew apparel manufacturing employed 1,000 in May 2023.
Sewing-Related Employment Outlook
BLS projections distinguish between annual openings and total employment change. Annual openings include replacement and growth openings, while a projected decline in employment does not mean that no jobs will be available.
| U.S. occupation | Projected annual openings, 2024–2034 | Projected employment change |
|---|---|---|
| Sewing machine operators | 9.8 thousand | -15.1% |
| Tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers | 4.2 thousand | -9.3% |
| Hand sewers | 0.6 thousand | Not supplied |
| Textile cutting machine operators | 0.9 thousand | Not supplied |
| Textile knitting and weaving machine operators | 1.3 thousand | Not supplied |
| Fabric and apparel patternmakers | 0.2 thousand | Not supplied |
According to Occupational separations and openings, sewing machine operators were projected to have 9.8 thousand annual openings from 2024 through 2034, while tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers were projected to have 4.2 thousand.
The same period included projected annual openings of 0.6 thousand for hand sewers, 0.9 thousand for textile cutting machine operators, 1.3 thousand for textile knitting and weaving machine operators, and 0.2 thousand for fabric and apparel patternmakers. Employment was projected to fall 15.1% for sewing machine operators and 9.3% for tailors, dressmakers and custom sewers.
Apparel Manufacturing and Sewing Industry Data
Census manufacturing data capture formal establishments and specific apparel segments rather than the entire sewing economy. In 2023, the United States had 3,430 employer establishments in cut-and-sew apparel manufacturing under NAICS 3152; establishments are not the same as firms or informal sewing businesses.
The Annual Survey of Manufactures: Benchmark Statistics for Industry Groups and Industries: 2018–2021 reports the following revenue for women’s, girls’ and infants’ cut-and-sew apparel, NAICS 31524:
| Year | Revenue | Annual payroll |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | $2.863 billion | $587.978 million |
| 2019 | $3.087 billion | $587.361 million |
| 2020 | $2.465 billion | $438.528 million |
| 2021 | $3.021 billion | Not supplied |
This segment’s revenue was $2.863 billion in 2018, $3.087 billion in 2019, $2.465 billion in 2020 and $3.021 billion in 2021. Its annual payroll was $587.978 million in 2018, $587.361 million in 2019 and $438.528 million in 2020; these figures cover the named segment, not all sewing or apparel production.
Textile Waste and Recycling Statistics
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s textile data describe municipal solid waste, or MSW, rather than sewing activity itself. The estimates exclude reused textiles from generation, so reuse is not counted as newly generated waste in these figures.
| U.S. textile MSW measure | 1960 | 2000 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generation | 1.760 million tons | 9.480 million tons | 17.030 million tons |
The EPA Textiles: Material-Specific Data estimated U.S. textile MSW generation at 1.760 million tons in 1960, 9.480 million tons in 2000 and 17.030 million tons in 2018. Textiles represented 5.8% of U.S. MSW generation in 2018.
The 2018 destination estimates show how generated textile weight was handled:
- The United States recycled 2.510 million tons of textiles in 2018, an estimated recycling rate of 14.7% of generated textile weight.
- The United States combusted 3.220 million tons of textiles with energy recovery in 2018.
- U.S. landfills received 11.300 million tons of textiles in 2018, and textiles were 7.7% of all U.S. MSW landfilled.
These EPA estimates concern textile material in the municipal waste stream, not the amount of fabric discarded by home sewers or the environmental impact of any single garment. They are therefore best read alongside the participation, occupational and manufacturing measures rather than treated as direct measures of sewing’s scale.