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Plants have always been popular, but the houseplant market has gone bonkers like nothing we have ever seen before. This post summarizes some fascinating houseplant statistics, demonstrating the explosive growth in the hobby. Houseplant hoarders unite!
Table of Contents
10 AMAZING HOUSEPLANT STATISTICS
In this post, I’ll present some data and statistics concerning houseplants. I’ll first present the results of some larger scale surveys that polled millennials, independent garden centers, and more.
I also collected my own data and, at the end of the post, I’ll show you the results of a poll that I conducted myself on Instagram which detailed how many houseplants my followers have.
1. What % of people in the U.S. have houseplants?
According to a 2020 study conducted by Civic Science, 66% of consumers in the U.S. have at least 1 houseplant.
2. What % of houseplant sales are Millennials responsible for?
The Garden Media’s 2019 Garden Trends Report indicates the following: According to Garden Research, a division of The National Gardening Association, in the last few years, Millennials have been responsible for 31% of houseplant sales (and this was before the unusual events of 2020!)
We all know y’all Millennials are crazy for houseplants.
3. How big is the indoor plant industry in the U.S.?
A 2019 article by the National Post states that U.S. houseplant sales had increased by 50% in the prior 3 years to a total of $1.7 billion (Source: National Gardening Association).
4. How big is the indoor plant industry in Canada?
The same 2019 article by the National Post also states that Statistics Canada indicates that overall garden plant sales increased 8% to $1.5 billion in the 2013 to 2018 time frame. (Houseplant sales were not broken down individually though, unfortunately.)
The next 4 statistics (#5 through and including #9) show some results of a survey created by market research company, OnePoll, and an online furniture store, Article. The results were based off of responses of 2,000 millennials spanning in age from 25 to 39.
5. Number of houseplants on average that Millennials kill
Of those surveyed, Millennials have killed an average of 7 houseplants.
6. % of Millennials that consider themselves plant murderers
Of those surveyed, 67% of Millennials consider themselves plant murderers.
7. % of Millennials that are nervous about keeping plants alive
Of those surveyed, 48% of Millennials stated that they are nervous about whether they can keep plants alive.
8. Is caring for plants more stressful than getting a root canal?
Perhaps the most humorous statistic is this one. Of those Millennials surveyed, 19% consider caring for plants more stressful than getting a root canal!
9. Houseplant sales statistics 2020
In March of 2021, Garden Center Magazine conducted a poll of over 250 IGC (independent garden centers) in the U.S. and Canada to study the exploding houseplant craze.
Of the 250+ garden centers that were surveyed, here are the poll results:
- 83% of the surveyed IGCs have a designated houseplant section
- 13% of the garden centers reported that 50% or more of their sales come from houseplants and related items such as pots, soil, grow lights, etc.
- 62% of the garden centers actually grow their own houseplant material.
- 64% of the garden centers reported that houseplant sales increased by more than 15% in 2020 compared to 2019.
- 96% expected houseplants sales to grow in 2021 compared to 2020.
- Surprisingly, 29% of garden centers did not increase houseplant prices in 2020. About 25% raised prices between 5-9%, 22% raised prices 10-19%, 20% raised prices 1-4%, and only 4% of the garden centers surveyed raised prices by 20% or more.
- The two largest social media platforms that garden centers use to promote houseplants are Facebook and Instagram. 93% of garden centers use Facebook to promote houseplants, followed by Instagram at 75%.
10. How many houseplants do people grow?
I conducted a bit of my own research and asked my own followers on Instagram (you can find me on IG at ohiotropics).
In December 2021, I took a poll of my followers through Instagram stories where I asked how many houseplants my followers grow. A total of 1,581 people responded and here are the results.
To help you interpret the graph, let’s pick the largest slice of the pie graph, orange. A total of 514 people reported that they own 11-20 houseplants, represented in orange on the chart. This represents 33% of the total responses.
The smallest slice of the pie, represented in purple, indicates that 5% of those that responded to my survey (a total of 85 individuals) own more than 200 houseplants.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post! What category do you fall in? Comment below. I’d love to hear!
