Robots are taking over the factory floor: more than 10% of South Korea’s workforce is now machine-based

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) has released a study showing that the use of robots in factories around the world has more than doubled over the past seven years. South Korea tops the list of countries with the highest density of robots in production, and China has overtaken Germany and Japan in this indicator in 2023.

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The report states that South Korea is the largest user of industrial robots (1,012 robots per 10,000 employees) and this figure has increased by 5% annually since 2018. Next comes Singapore, where there are 770 robots per 10,000 employees. China closes the top three, with 470 robots per 10,000 employees.

According to IFR head Takayuki Ito, the density of robots illustrates the extent of automation in global manufacturing. “China’s massive investment in automation technology has allowed it to achieve such a high robot density despite a huge manufacturing workforce of about 37 million people,” Ito said. He also added that the robot density indicator is an important characteristic that allows one to compare the level of automation of production in different countries.

Germany and Japan, with 439 and 419 robots per 10,000 employees, took fourth and fifth place in the IFR ranking, respectively. In the US, there are 295 robots per 10,000 employees, which is tenth on the IFR list. The world’s average robot density has risen to 162 in 2023, more than double the figure seven years ago when there were 74 robots per 10,000 employees.