Looking for houseplant statistics?
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We’ve curated the most up-to-date houseplant statistics for you.
Let’s dive in.
Houseplant Statistics:
- 33.1 million people in the US have houseplants.
- 66% of American households own at least one houseplant.
- The market size of the plant and flower growing sector in the United States reached 15.23 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.
- Houseplant owners spend $75 a year on houseplants.
- The average American plant owner has a lifetime spend of $566 on houseplants.
- 40+ year old Americans buy the most plants.
- 7 in 10 millennials consider themselves a “plant parent”.
- 47% of millennials own plants because it’s trendy.
- 47% of millennials don’t currently own plants because they don’t know how to care for them.
- Average plant parent has killed 7 houseplants.
- 40% of houseplants die in the supply chain, and another 30% die in customers’ homes.
- Demand for houseplants surged by 18% during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- 50.5% of plant buyers are women and 49.5% are men.
- 72% of plant buyers agree that houseplants make them feel better and 44% feeling great optimism about the future even though COVID-19 heavily affected their lives.
- Flowering houseplants are the most purchased plant category.
- 70% of houseplant owners keep their plants in their living room or bedroom.
- Houseplants can remove up to 87% of air toxin in 24 hours.
- Indoor plants improve productivity by 12%.
1. 33.1 million people in the US have houseplants.
According to a houseplant gardening participation survey running from 2010 to 2019, 33.1 million U.S. households participated in indoor houseplant gardening in 2019. (1)
2. 66% of American households own at least one houseplant.
Since 2019 there has been a steady increase in plant ownership among U.S. consumers.
The number of consumers with no interest in owning a plant has decreased to 26%. (2)
3. The market size of the plant and flower growing sector in the United States reached 15.23 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.
The market size of the plant and flower growing sector in the United States was 15.23 billion USD in 2020.
It saw an increase over the previous year’s size of 14.18 billion U.S. dollars.
The sector was forecast to grow to 15.85 billion USD in 2021. (3)
4. Houseplant owners spend $75 a year on houseplants.
According to the CraftJack.com survey, most people who have houseplants spend on average $75 on their hobby annually.
63% of respondents said their collection of plants increased during the pandemic. (4)
5. The average American plant owner has a lifetime spend of $566 on houseplants.
| Amount spent on houseplants, annually | Amount spent on houseplants, lifetime | The most someone would spend on a plant |
| $74 | $566 | $110 |
6. 40+ year old Americans buy the most plants.
The average age of plant buyers is 40+ years old, which represents 70% of the population. (5)
| Plant Buyer Years | Percentage |
| 20-30 years | 7% |
| 30-40 years | 22% |
| 40+ years | 70% |
7. 7 in 10 millennials consider themselves a “plant parent”.
Article.com launched a survey with OnePoll to 2,000 millennials (25-39) and found that 7 in 10 millennials consider themselves a plant parent.
Plant parent is a term coined by the millennial generation and refers to caring for houseplants. (6)
8. 47% of millennials own plants because it’s trendy.
The survey found main reasons why millennials own houseplants. (6)
Here are the top five:
| Plants complimented overall home decor aesthetic | 50% |
| Plants improve air quality | 48% |
| Plants are trendy | 47% |
| Plants are peaceful and calming | 45% |
| Plants make a space look beautiful | 39% |
9. 47% of millennials don’t currently own plants because they don’t know how to care for them.
As much as millennials love plants, plant care is hard for many.
- 47% – say they don’t currently own plants because they don’t know how to take care for them;
- 67% – agree the responsibility of being a plant parent is more than what they bargained for;
- 19% – think that watching plants is more stressful than getting a root canal.
Millennials said the most challenging part of taking care of plants are:
| 50% | The proper sunlight needed. |
| 46% | How much water is needed. |
| 43% | Whether the plant is an indoor or outdoor one. |
| 34% | The importance of pruning plants. |
| 30% | How easy it is to kill a plant. |
10. Average plant parent has killed 7 houseplants.
Article.com found that on average, millennials have killed seven houseplants that they’ve brought home.
67% call themselves plant murderers. (6)
| Call Themselves Plant Parents | Killed Houseplants by Millennials | Call Themselves Plant Murderers |
| 70% of millennials | 7 houseplants | 67% of millennials |
The same study also found some of the anxieties millennials have when it comes to caring for plants.
Here are the top five:
| 60% | Making sure they have enough sunlight. |
| 56% | Ensuring they have enough water. |
| 48% | Keeping them alive. |
| 37% | Stressing out the plant(s) when they move them. |
| 21% | Finding a plant sitter when away/out of town. |
11. 40% of houseplants die in the supply chain, and another 30% die in customers’ homes.
12. Demand for houseplants surged by 18% during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2021, Garden Center magazine polled more than 250 independent garden center owners and managers in the U.S. and Canada to see how houseplant popularity has affected demand, sales and prices.
Garden centers were seeing 20% or more of sales coming from indoor growing jumped up 18% in 2021 over the previous year.
Garden centers that saw an increase of 15% or more in their houseplant departments jumped up nearly 25% in 2021.
More than 80% of those surveyed say they increased houseplant offerings in 2020-2021.
But although sales and offerings were up, garden centers didn’t increase their prices much more than they did in 2019. (8)
13. 50.5% of plant buyers are women and 49.5% are men.
According to Zippia.com, among the plant buyers, 50.5% are women and 49.5% are men.
The most common ethnicity among plant buyers is White, which makes up 70.9% of all plant buyers.
| Plant Buyer Race | Percentages |
| White | 70.9% |
| Hispanic or Latino | 11.4% |
| Black or African American | 8.7% |
| Asian | 6.6% |
| Unknown | 1.8% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
14. 72% of plant buyers agree that houseplants make them feel better and 44% feeling great optimism about the future even though COVID-19 heavily affected their lives.
The Floral Marketing Fund conducted an in-depth study and found that “consumers felt plants helped them throughout the pandemic to deal with stressful thoughts and feelings”. (9)
15. Flowering houseplants are the most purchased plant category.
The study included 10 types of houseplants—broad-leaf foliage, bromeliads, cacti, flowering plants, ferns, indoor palms, air plants, narrow-leaf foliage, succulents and trailing/climbing plants. (9)
Here are the top three categories:
- Flowering plants
- Broad-leaf foliage
- Succulents
16. 70% of houseplant owners keep their plants in their living room or bedroom.
According to the Floral Marketing Fund study, 70% of respondents keep their houseplants in the living room or bedroom, 47% prefer a kitchen. (9)
17. Houseplants can remove up to 87% of air toxin in 24 hours.
NASA made an extensive research and found that houseplants remove really help a lot in removing toxins from the air. (10)
18. Indoor plants improve productivity by 12%.
The study, published in the “Journal of Environmental Horticulture,” reports that productivity increased 12 percent when people performed a simple task on a computer in a room with plants compared with workers who performed the same task in the same room without plants. (11)
References
- Indoor houseplant gardening participation in the United States from 2010 to 2019. Link
- Gen Z Houseplant Ownership Stems from the Desire to Care for Something Alive. Link
- Market size of the plant and flower growing sector in the United States from 2011 to 2020, with a forecast for 2021. Link
- Study reveals houseplants are the new pets. Link
- Plant buyer demographics and statistics in the US. Link
- Survey: decorating with houseplants. Link
- Americans kill nearly half their houseplants. So why do we still spend billions on them each year? Link
- Blooming and booming. Link
- Houseplant Purchasing Trends. Link
- Plants Clean Air and Water for Indoor Environments. Link
- Indoor Plants May Increase Worker Productivity. Link