Textiles and clothing: household consumption in the European Union 2009-2020

In 2020, EU households were estimated to have purchased approximately 490 billion euros worth of clothing and textile products. This marked a substantial increase over the period of time on display, if a slight decline on the year prior, when expenditure on textile and clothing was at 519.5 billion euros.

Textile production in EU

Across the European Union, the number of clothing manufacturers are in decline and turnover from these companies remains generally stagnant. Globally speaking, EU as a bloc is the leading importer of textileswith its share of 23 percent of world imports in this category, ahead of the United States by more than ten percent.

Textiles from China

Currently, the EU imports more textile goods than it exports, with China being the main supplier of textiles into the EU. Within the EU, Germany ranks as the leading importer, with a value of over 37 billion U.S. dollars worth of textile goods, 14 billion dollars more than second-placed France. Not surprisingly, most of the textile imports to arrive in Germany originated from China.