Skip to main content

IDTechEx Research: RFID Market to reach US$11.2 billion in 2017

A new report by IDTechEx Research, RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2017-2027, IDTechEx Research, indicates that in 2017, the total RFID market will be worth US$11.2 billion, up from US$10.52 billion in 2016 and US$9.95 billion in 2015. This includes tags, readers and software/services for RFID labels, cards, fobs and other form factors, for passive and active RFID. In retail, RFID continues to be rolled-out for apparel tagging predominately - that application alone will demand 8.7 billion RFID lab
August 7, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
A new report by 6582 IDTechEx Research, RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2017-2027, IDTechEx Research, indicates that in 2017, the total RFID market will be worth US$11.2 billion, up from US$10.52 billion in 2016 and US$9.95 billion in 2015. This includes tags, readers and software/services for RFID labels, cards, fobs and other form factors, for passive and active RFID.


In retail, RFID continues to be rolled-out for apparel tagging predominately - that application alone will demand 8.7 billion RFID labels in 2017 - which still has plenty of room for growth since this is less than 20 per cent penetration of the total addressable market for apparel in 2017. In other areas, RFID in the form of tickets used for transit will demand 825 million tags in 2017 and the tagging of animals (such as pigs, sheep and pets) is substantial as it continues to be a legal requirement in many more territories, with 480 million tags being used for this sector in 2017.

In total, IDTechEx expects that 18.2 billion tags will be sold in 2017 versus 15.2 billion in 2016. Most of that growth is from passive UHF (RAIN) RFID labels. However, in 2017 UHF RFID tag sales by value will be 25% of the value of HF tag sales, mainly because HF tags where used for security (such as payments, access etc) have a higher price point versus the cheaper, usually disposable labels used for tagging things.

IDTechEx Research has analysed the RFID market for over 18 years. This report provides detailed data and analysis of the entire sector based on our extensive research including interviews with RFID adopters and solution providers in the various RFID application markets, giving an unprecedented level of insight into the total RFID industry and what is really happening. Predominately, IDTechEx conducts research through interviews with companies across the value chain, site visits and conference visits followed by secondary research.

For UHF, HF and LF data provided includes numbers of tags, average sales price and total tag value for 24 application categories. Interrogator forecasts are broken down by frequency. The total RFID value is given for the eleven largest RFID markets.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • European Accessibility Act ‘favours business demands; says disabled group
    May 8, 2017
    The European Disability Forum (EDF) has reacted strongly to the recent EU vote which aims to make key products and services, like phones, e-book readers, operating systems and payment terminals, more accessible to people with disabilities, under new draft EU rules. EDF is an umbrella group representing 100 associations and some 80 million disabled people across the EU. The Internal Market Committee (IMCO) amended and approved the rules, which would apply only to products and services placed on the EU market
  • Millions of cars at risk due to flaw in keyless entry systems, say researchers
    August 15, 2016
    Researchers at the University of Birmingham in the UK have found that millions of cars could be vulnerable to theft, due to a flaw in keyless entry systems in many models. The findings, presented at the 25th USENIX Security Symposium in Austin, Texas, highlight two case studies that outline the ease at which criminals could gain access to numerous vehicles with relatively simple and inexpensive methods. Both attacks use a cheap, easily available piece of radio hardware to intercept signals from a key
  • Hard data supports traffic monitoring
    April 30, 2024
    A collaboration between AGD Systems and North Line Canada has demonstrated the value of traffic experts putting their heads together to improve pedestrian safety
  • TagMaster and Siemens Mobility collaborate on selective vehicle detection
    February 3, 2012
    TagMaster, the specialist producer of advanced RFID solutions for automatic vehicle identification (AVI) has announced that Siemens Mobility will use its long-range RFID readers and ID-tags as part of a solution for traffic management and Selective Vehicle Detection (SVD).