World Data Lab

Category

Clothing & Footwear

Built for apparel teams deciding which markets to open, how far the price range needs to stretch, and which age bands it is really cut for.

COICOP 3

Start the shortlist where the category is bought.

Every country to 2050, all 9,400+ cities to 2040. One model, one shared scale for a market and a city.

The category down to its 6 lines. Each with its own size, growth and cohort, never one blended average.

Every figure by age band and spending tier. A target cohort is only a filter on the same numbers.

Priced against what each market can afford. The share of a city that can buy at your price, and when.

USD 2.86T

Spending in 2026

USD 4.32T

Spending in 2036

+USD 1.45T

Added by 2036

4.19%

Annual growth to 2036

USD 351

Per person a year

4.0%

Share of the global wallet

nominal USD, current prices

Where the category is bought

World

 

 

The 20 largest published city markets for clothing and footwear, spending in 2026 in nominal USD billions. Source: World Data Intelligence.
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Clothing and footwear: top 20 city markets by spending in 2026
CityCountry2026 (USD bn)2036 (USD bn)Annual growth (%)
New York CityUnited States37.148.42.69
Los AngelesUnited States31.344.23.50
TokyoJapan26.033.42.52
SeoulSouth Korea21.829.93.22
LondonUnited Kingdom21.531.03.72
San FranciscoUnited States19.827.63.34
MoscowRussia16.518.41.10
IstanbulTurkey16.126.45.09
Buenos AiresArgentina16.024.44.31
JakartaIndonesia15.331.27.36
ShanghaiChina15.320.52.98
Sao PauloBrazil15.221.23.43
MiamiUnited States13.618.73.20
ParisFrance13.416.62.17
BeijingChina12.620.95.26
ChicagoUnited States12.215.42.39
CairoEgypt10.620.97.04
TaipeiTaiwan10.215.64.36
WashingtonUnited States9.513.23.41
GuangzhouChina9.212.42.99

Time entry to the year a city reaches your price.

Annual consumer spending on clothing and footwear, 2000 to 2040.

2026
  1. New York City: USD 37bn in 2026
  2. Los Angeles: USD 31bn in 2026
  3. Tokyo: USD 26bn in 2026
  4. Seoul: USD 22bn in 2026
  5. London: USD 22bn in 2026
The five largest city markets in the 2026 race snapshot, nominal USD billions. Source: World Data Intelligence.
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Clothing and footwear: city race in 2026
CityCountry code2026 (USD bn)
New York CityUSA37.1
Los AngelesUSA31.3
TokyoJPN26.0
SeoulKOR21.8
LondonGBR21.5

Aim the range at the cohort that is arriving.

By spending tier

Spending in 2026Added by 2036Rich30.1%48.1%Upper middle15.0%16.5%Core middle26.2%22.7%Lower middle23.1%12.3%Poor5.6%0.4%
  • Rich: 30.1% of spending in 2026, 48.1% of the spending added by 2036
  • Upper middle: 15.0% of spending in 2026, 16.5% of the spending added by 2036
  • Core middle: 26.2% of spending in 2026, 22.7% of the spending added by 2036
  • Lower middle: 23.1% of spending in 2026, 12.3% of the spending added by 2036
  • Poor: 5.6% of spending in 2026, 0.4% of the spending added by 2036

By age band

Spending in 2026Added by 203665 and over11.2%18.5%45-6526.2%27.9%30-4521.7%17.7%15-3020.3%21.4%0-1520.6%14.5%
  • 65 and over: 11.2% of spending in 2026, 18.5% of the spending added by 2036
  • 45-65: 26.2% of spending in 2026, 27.9% of the spending added by 2036
  • 30-45: 21.7% of spending in 2026, 17.7% of the spending added by 2036
  • 15-30: 20.3% of spending in 2026, 21.4% of the spending added by 2036
  • 0-15: 20.6% of spending in 2026, 14.5% of the spending added by 2036
Share of 2026 spending and share of spending added by 2036, by spending tier and age band. Source: World Data Intelligence.
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Clothing and footwear: spending tiers and age bands
CohortDimension2026 spending (%)Added by 2036 (%)Annual growth (%)
PoorSpending tier5.60.40.37
Lower middleSpending tier23.112.32.42
Core middleSpending tier26.222.73.70
Upper middleSpending tier15.016.54.53
RichSpending tier30.148.16.12
0-15Age band20.614.53.11
15-30Age band20.321.44.38
30-45Age band21.717.73.53
45-65Age band26.227.94.42
65 and overAge band11.218.56.28

Weight the portfolio to the lines that are moving.

Area is spending in 2026. USD 2.86T across 6 published lines of the model.

Garments

USD 1.99T · 69.7%

Shoes and other footwear

USD 597bn · 20.8%

USD 118bn

USD 92bn

  • Other clothing and accessoriesUSD 118bn
  • Cleaning, repair and hire of clothingUSD 92bn
  • Clothing materialsUSD 57bn
  • Repair and hire of footwearUSD 6bn
Published lines of clothing and footwear, sized by 2026 spending in nominal USD billions. Source: World Data Intelligence.
See the data
Clothing and footwear: published category lines in 2026
Category line2026 (USD bn)Share of plotted spending (%)Annual growth (%)
Garments1994.169.74.09
Shoes and other footwear596.920.84.16
Other clothing and accessories117.64.14.20
Cleaning, repair and hire of clothing91.53.25.35
Clothing materials57.22.06.14
Repair and hire of footwear5.70.23.70

Five decisions a apparel team can settle with this data.

01

Market entry and prioritisation

The cities holding the most clothing and footwear spending today are not the ones adding it fastest. Across the forty largest markets in the model the spread runs from 1.1% a year to 9.7%, which is the difference between a market that transforms by 2036 and one that barely moves. We rank every city on the spending that is forming rather than the spending already there.

02

Pricing and affordability

Spending on clothing and footwear by rich consumers compounds at 6.12% a year, against 0.37% for the poorest. A cheaper range can hold its volume and still be defending a shrinking share of the growth, because the growth is not sitting where the volume is. We map spending power against your own price range in every market you sell in.

03

Category and portfolio strategy

Inside the category, clothing materials compounds at 6.14% a year while repair and hire of footwear manages 3.70%. Those are two different shelf decisions inside one category averaging 4.19%, and the average is what most portfolio reviews are still built on.

04

Segmentation and targeting

Spending on clothing and footwear by the over-65s compounds at 6.28% a year, against 3.11% for the under-15s. In New York City the over-65s already hold 10% of the category. A pipeline aimed at the wrong life stage is chasing the slower half of the market, and the gap widens every year to 2036.

05

Demand forecasting and sizing

The category adds $1.45 trillion between 2026 and 2036, and none of it arrives evenly. A capacity decision taken now rests on the market that will exist in ten years rather than the one visible today. We project every market and every year to 2050.

FAQ

Questions a apparel team asks us.

Consumers spend $2.86 trillion on clothing and footwear in 2026, which is 4.0% of all their spending. The market grows 4.19% a year in current dollars and reaches $4.32 trillion by 2036. Between those two years it adds $1.45 trillion.

The fastest-growing subcategory is clothing materials at 6.14% a year and the slowest is repair and hire of footwear at 3.70%. The category as a whole grows 4.19% a year. The two largest subcategories are garments at $1.99 trillion and shoes and other footwear at $597bn. Both grow more slowly than clothing materials.

New York City spends the most at $37bn a year, followed by Los Angeles at $31bn and Tokyo at $26bn. We estimate the category for all 9,400+ cities in every year to 2040. The top ten of the 253 cities on this page's map hold 25% of the spending it shows.

Among the largest city markets, New Delhi grows fastest at 9.7% a year and Moscow slowest at 1.1%. The cities adding the most spending by 2036 make a different list, led by Jakarta at $16bn, Los Angeles at $13bn and New Delhi at $13bn.

Yes, every market and city splits the category into five age bands and five spending tiers. Sizing the cohort you target means filtering those same figures, with nothing extra to commission. Genoa has the oldest profile, with 22% of its spending from the over-65s. San Francisco is the most affluent, with 96% from its richest spending tier.

We forecast every country, subcategory and cohort each year to 2050, and every city to 2040. Because one model produces all of them, a market and a city read on the same scale. The method is published and peer reviewed. Our page on how we measure spending sets it out. The average person spends $351 a year on clothing and footwear today.

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Clothing & Footwear

A concise slide deck of the key clothing & footwear spending trends across 194 countries and 9,400+ cities, with national forecasts to 2050 and city forecasts to 2040.

PDF slide deck194 countriesNational to 2050 · Cities to 2040

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