Ethics In The Garment Industry Statistics

22% of consumers said they have stopped buying a brand due to ethical concerns (boycott share) [1]

12% of consumers reported buying clothing less frequently than before by more than 25% (frequency reduction share) [2]

41% of consumers are concerned about labor rights in global supply chains (concern share) [3]

20% of consumers prefer certified “fair trade” clothing [4]

18% of consumers reported being willing to pay a premium for ethical apparel [5]

2.1 billion garments are produced in the EU annually (production quantity estimate) [6]

61% of workplaces are estimated to have occupational safety and health violations in garment supply chains (global estimate) [7]

25% of textile dyeing wastewater contains persistent organic pollutants (POPs) when not treated (contaminant share estimate) [8]

Textiles are estimated to contribute 20% of global wastewater (industry estimate) [9]

Textiles and apparel account for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions (system-level estimate for apparel and footwear) [10]

The fashion industry contributes about 10% of global carbon emissions (popular estimate) [11]

Microfibers from synthetic textiles are a major source of plastic pollution in oceans (estimated share of marine microplastics) [12]

2018: 27% of garment waste in EU was collected for recycling? (collection rate estimate) [13]

85% of textiles collected for reuse/recycling are not recycled due to contamination or lack of suitable sorting (share estimate) [14]

1 metric ton of textile production uses 1.7–2.5 metric tons of carbon (CO2e estimate per ton of fiber) [15]

EU textiles strategy targets fiber-to-fiber recycling of 25% by 2025 (target) [16]

The OECD estimates that clothing production increased by around 20% between 2000 and 2014 (textile apparel growth) [17]

70% of global waste generated by fashion ends up in landfill/incineration (estimate) [18]

A pair of jeans can emit around 19.6 kg CO2e (life-cycle estimate) [19]

A typical T-shirt can weigh 0.2 kg but has a much higher water footprint from production (water use estimate per t-shirt) [20]

8.5 million tons of clothing waste were generated globally in 2015 (global estimate) [21]

92 million tonnes of clothing waste were generated globally in 2019 (estimate) [22]

20% of workers in textile dyeing/finishing are estimated to have symptoms consistent with toxic exposure (occupational health estimate) [23]

50% of textile factories in some monitoring programs fail initial compliance inspections for environmental permits (non-compliance share estimate) [24]

1.5% of clothing is recycled into new clothing globally (global recycling-to-new rate estimate) [25]

50% of garments are worn less than 10 times (use frequency estimate) [26]

1 in 10 garment workers report not receiving legally mandated benefits (benefits share estimate) [27]

1.8 million people work in the garment industry in Vietnam (employment estimate) [28]

27% of garment workers report being denied access to toilets or breaks [29]

33% of garment workers report not having access to grievance mechanisms [30]

1 in 4 (25%) people in forced labor in the private economy are in textile/clothing and related supply chains (sector subset estimate) [31]

85% of workers in apparel are in low-income households (poverty incidence estimate) [32]

10% of garment workers are under 18 years old (child labor share estimate) [33]

29% of garment workers are in informal employment (informality share estimate) [34]

22% of workers reported being denied permission to take collective action or meetings [35]

The ILO estimates that 25 million people are in forced labour due to private economy actors globally (forced labor context) [36]

79% of garment workers in a survey said they experience excessive working hours [37]

26% of brands have a policy requiring suppliers to respect freedom of association and collective bargaining (coverage share) [38]

65% of global garment sector employment is in textiles and clothing manufacturing (employment share of sector) [39]

31% of workers reported that managers threatened them before audits (threat share) [40]

62% of brands lacked sufficiently detailed supplier disclosure (lack-of-transparency estimate) [41]

8% of brands provided supplier grievance channels accessible to workers (share) [42]

70% of global textile and apparel supply chain emissions occur in upstream stages (fiber/spinning/weaving) (share estimate) [43]

57% of brands do not publicly report their supplier list (non-disclosure share) [44]

1,800+ factories were in the Accord’s database for inspections and remediation (factory number) [45]

97% of reported complaints under Accord worker engagement received some form of response (response rate) [46]

1,100 brands were covered by Bangladesh Accord participating brands (approximate count) [47]

40% of workers reported that they know about grievance channels related to factory safety (awareness share) [48]

10% of global production is from the rest of Asia/Others (production share) [49]

2013: Accord signed by retailers and unions with legally binding commitments (Accord formation year) [50]

6,000+ brands source from Bangladesh’s garment sector (sourcing dependency estimate) [51]

The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive proposal would apply to companies with more than 500 employees and net turnover thresholds (threshold example) [52]

OECD due diligence guidance recommends 5-step due diligence process for responsible business conduct (5-step framework) [53]

UK Modern Slavery Act requires a “slavery and human trafficking statement” for commercial businesses with turnover above £36 million [54]

California Transparency in Supply Chains Act applies to retailers and manufacturers doing business in California with annual worldwide gross receipts exceeding $100 million [55]

France’s Duty of Vigilance law expands to companies with thresholds as above starting at 2017 with vigilance plan obligations [56]

4,700+ due diligence audits were conducted by Better Work in participating countries by reporting period (audit count) [57]

Better Work program reported participating factories count of 250+ (factories in program) [58]

ILO Better Work reports that average compliance with core labor standards improved by around 10 percentage points from baseline in some assessments (improvement) [59]

22% of garment workers reported blocked access to emergency exits [60]

152,000 garment workers were employed in factories at the time of the Rana Plaza collapse (Bangladesh supply chain context) [61]

200 workers were injured in the Tazreen Fashion factory fire [62]

1,515 textile and garment workers died in industrial disasters in Bangladesh over 2006-2013 (major incidents) [63]

29,000 workers were involved in Bangladesh Accord/Alliance safety inspection programs (example coverage figure for participating factories/workers) [64]

1,600+ factories were inspected under the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety by 2013 (factories) [65]

2,500+ corrective actions were identified under the Bangladesh Accord (corrective actions) [66]

300+ factories were required to undergo structural remediation due to building risks (reported remediation scope) [67]

1,138 deaths are reported in some summaries for Rana Plaza (rounding/recording differences) [68]

112 deaths in the Tazreen fire are reported in multiple sources [69]

27% of factories had critical issues needing remediation within deadlines (remediation share) [70]

54% of surveyed consumers who participated in a 2021–2022 UK survey reported that they try to avoid buying clothes from brands they believe use forced labour [71]