Half of the top 10 nations with the most industrial robots per 10,000 employees belong to the European Union.
The highly developed nature of automation in Europe is also clear from looking at the manufacturing industry.
US car makers are ranked third in robot density, behind Japan and the Republic of Korea.
The US automotive industry has performed well over the last six years.
Within the NAFTA area (USA, Canada and Mexico), the total number of newly installed industrial robots rose by 17 percent to a new record of some 36,000 units (2015).
The leader of the pack was the USA, accounting for three-quarters of all units sold. With a comparatively much smaller amount of units, the demand in Canada increased by 49 percent (5,466 units), while that in Mexico grew by 119 percent (3,474 units).
That’s about one million units more than in the record-breaking year of 2015.
Broken down according to sectors, around 70 percent of industrial robots are currently at work in the automotive, electrical/electronics and metal and machinery industry segments.
In 2015, the strongest growth in the number of operational units recorded here was registered in the electronics industry, which boasted a rise of 18 percent.
The metal industry posted an increase of 16 percent, with the automotive sector growing by 10 percent.
The strongest growth drivers for the robotics industry are found in China; however, in 2019 some 40 percent of the worldwide market volume of industrial robots will be sold there alone.