Consumption of chemicals by world region 2023

This statistic shows the consumption of chemical products worldwide in 2023, distributed by region. In that year, the consumption of chemical products was worth over 852 billion euros in Europe. Of that amount, products worth 619.6 billion euros were consumed in the European Union. 

Global consumption of chemicals

Chemical consumption worldwide in 2023 accounted for more than 5.2 trillion euros. Products worth 3.3 trillion euros of that amount were consumed in Asia, followed by Europe and North America (NAFTA), at 852 billion euros and 676.01 billion euros, respectively.

Asia plays a sizable role in the global chemicals market, but China in particular is largely responsible for the recent increases in Asia’s growing exports and consumption of chemicals. In 2022, Chinese chemical consumption accounted for approximately 2.2 trillion euros. This value was over four times as much as the consumption of chemicals in the United States, while Germany and India came in a distant third and fourth, respectively. Germany, the United States, and China held the leading positions as the countries with the largest share of global chemical exports that year.

The chemical industry worldwide has been on a growth track over the last decade, reaching over five trillion U.S. dollars in 2023. The largest chemical companies in 2024 were mostly based in Germany, Japan, and the United States. As of 2024, Linde and Air Liquide were the top chemical companies worldwide based on market capitalization, with roughly 206 billion U.S. dollars and 104 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.