Fact of the Week: The Midwest and Great Plains are America’s Regional Leaders in Industrial Robot Usage

Source: United States Census Bureau, Annual Survey of Manufactures Industrial Robotic Equipment: 2018 and 2019 (accessed July 21, 2022).

Commentary: A recent report from the United States Census Bureau on the prevalence of industrial robots (IRs) shows that the Midwest and the Great Plains are home to the U.S. states with the highest exposure to such machines. IR concentration is especially high in Michigan. In 2019, 39.5 percent of Michigan’s manufacturing employees had exposure to IRs, which was the most in the nation. Michigan was slightly behind only Iowa in the percentage of manufacturing plants that employed IRs (18.6 percent for Iowa and 18.5 percent for Michigan). Lastly, Michigan led the nation in IR-related investments, spending $442 million on IR capital expenditures in 2019.

Kansas (36.3 percent), Missouri (35.7 percent), and North Dakota (34.4 percent) are also among the top five states with the highest share of manufacturing employees exposed to IRs. In terms of the share of plants that employ IRs, Kansas (17.7 percent), Wisconsin (17.6 percent), and Minnesota (17.3 percent) round out the top five states behind Iowa and Michigan. The Midwest also contains the three states with the largest IR capital expenditures in 2019, with Illinois and Indiana trailing Michigan at $356 million and $270.5 million, respectively.