EU Industrial Robots in 2025: IFR Reports a Larger Stock and Fewer New Installations

The European Union's stock of industrial robots reached a new milestone in 2025 while annual installations declined, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The figures describe different measures: one concerns robots estimated to be in operation, the other concerns new installations during the year. Reading them together provides a more useful picture than treating either as a complete account of every factory.

What the 2026 release reports

In its EU-27 market release, dated 24 September 2026, IFR reports approximately 712,000 operational industrial robots in the European Union in 2025. It says the EU accounted for 84% of Europe's operational stock. The organization separately reports 60,500 annual installations in the EU in 2025, an 11% decline from the previous year.

The year on the report is not the year of the observation: these figures describe 2025. The stock and installation numbers use IFR's definitions and statistical methods, and are not a count of every kind of robot. The figures do not identify which individual factories bought, retired or relocated machines.

Stock and annual installations answer different questions

Annual installations describe new deployments recorded for a particular year. Operational stock describes the number considered in use under the report's method. A decline in one year's installations can coexist with a larger stock, because stock reflects more than the most recent year's new installations. The stock figure should not be read as proof that every previously installed robot is still running.

For comparison, IFR's World Robotics 2025 executive summary reports EU installations for 2024 and distinguishes the EU, Europe and the euro area. Those geographic groupings are not interchangeable. When comparing editions, use the same region and check for revisions rather than mixing an EU figure from one source with a Europe-wide figure from another.

What changed across customer industries

The 2026 EU release reports about 14,900 installations in automotive in 2025, down 25%, and 13,000 in the metal industry, down 13%. It also lists about 7,400 in plastics and chemical products, down 3%, and 5,300 in food and beverage, up 4%. These are reported industry categories and rounded figures; they do not mean every company in those sectors experienced the same change.

Comparing the number of installations and the rate of change gives two perspectives. A sector can have a smaller annual total but a positive change, while a larger sector declines. The press release does not supply enough information to attribute each industry's movement to a single cause, so an article should not invent one.

The release describes the automotive sector as the EU's largest customer industry in 2025, with approximately one quarter of installations. That share is within the EU annual installation total; it is not the sector's share of global robot installations. The food and beverage figure is smaller in absolute terms even though its reported annual change is positive. Readers interested in a particular application should examine the full report's definitions and, where available, more detailed data rather than assuming all machines in a sector perform the same task.

Country shares need the EU denominator

IFR reports that Germany installed approximately 24,800 industrial robots in 2025, representing 41% of EU installations. It lists Italy at about 7,800, with France and Spain at roughly 4,500 and 4,300 respectively. Those shares and counts refer to the release's EU market definition, not to each country's share of all European operational robots.

Rounding can make a ratio calculated from displayed numbers differ slightly from the published percentage. Use the original release's labels and avoid presenting a calculation based on rounded figures as a more precise official statistic. A market ranking also does not measure productivity or the quality of an individual installation.

The EU release gives a 3% compound annual growth rate for 2020 through 2025, while also reporting an 11% decline in 2025. The first summarizes a multi-year interval; the second compares one year with the previous year. Both can be true at the same time. Neither demonstrates that installations increased in every year of the interval. A detailed time series is needed to understand the intervening changes.

How to use the information

Businesses can use the report to frame questions about sector demand and geographic scope, then investigate the specific application, supplier and site conditions. Record the date on which the original source was accessed for later review. A forecast or commentary about future investment should be attributed and kept separate from the historical 2025 data. The press release's rounded totals are not a substitute for the detailed report or a purchase specification.

Our guide to reading robot density and the robotics news collection explain other statistical distinctions. Keeping the observation year, region and measure visible allows readers to assess the reported change without confusing annual demand with the installed base.