Equip Your 2024 Projects With the Right Construction Data and Stats for Success
Construction industry statistics and data are playing an increasingly important role in the building sector. From measuring bid-to-win ratio, to how much a project is over budget or schedule, and KPIs, the more numbers you can put behind your work, the better. Data not only allows for more visibility into the state of a particular project, but relevant industry statistics and facts can provide valuable information needed to make important future decisions regarding preconstruction and planning, productivity tools, risk assessment, and workforce and operational efficiency.
Undoubtedly, the construction industry is very complex. With risk increasing, how do firms keep up with new change and demand for 2024 and beyond?
Below, we’ll provide you with all the important construction industry statistics you need to understand the current state of affairs. Additionally, we’ll explore how your company and project can avoid becoming another statistic through the power of construction innovation.
After reviewing these construction industry statistics, you should be able to:
Thoroughly understand the state of the industry and construction workforce
Leverage data to increase project productivity and reduce costs
Learn how cutting-edge technology and business transformation holds the key to increasing industry-wide efficiency
Whether you need a refresh on current trends or are looking for solid data to bring to your project manager or owner, we hope to equip you with the ultimate 100+ construction industry statistics that you need for your next project’s success. Looking to grab a fact fast? Here are key categories so you can quickly locate the most relevant construction industry statistics to your project:
The economic value of the global construction industry was estimated at $9.7 trillion USD in 2022 when measured by gross output. The industry represents 13% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 7% of the global working age population. [McKinsey & Company] | Click to Tweet
Buildings contribute to approximately 40% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. [UNEP] | Click to Tweet
Two-thirds (66%) feel optimistic about the direction of the construction market. [KPMG] | Click to Tweet
54% of construction leaders are “fully envisioning” the benefits of ESG and aggressively pursuing maturity. [KPMG] | Click to Tweet
Industry needs to build 13,000 buildings each day between now and 2050 to support an expected population of 7 billion people living in cities. [Redshift] | Click to Tweet
Over 5 years (2018 through 2022), an average of 1.41 million new privately owned housing units broke ground annually. [ipropertymanagement] | Click to Tweet
Global construction work done will grow over US $4.2 trillion over the next 15 years – from US $9.7 trillion in 2022 to US $13.9 trillion by 2037. [International Construction] | Click to Tweet
Design-build is anticipated to represent 47% ($1.9 trillion) of construction spending in the US in 2026. [DBIA] | Click to Tweet
Design-build projects are completed 102% faster than traditional design-bid-build projects. [DBIA] | Click to Tweet
23% of firms report they are taking steps to improve jobsite performance with lean construction techniques, tools like BIM, and offsite prefabrication. [AGC] | Click to Tweet
About 90% of firms using prefabrication report improved productivity, improved quality, and increased schedule certainty compared to traditional stick-built construction. [Dodge Data & Analytics] | Click to Tweet
72% of firms say projects have taken longer than anticipated. [AGC] | Click to Tweet
Construction profit growth is expected to cool down from 14.2% in FY23 to 4.4% on average over the next five years. [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
Over 50% of engineering and construction professionals report one or more underperforming projects in the previous year. [KPMG] | Click to Tweet
69% of owners say poor contractor performance is the single biggest reason for project underperformance. [KPMG] | Click to Tweet
81% of firms have raised base pay rates for their workers during the past year. [AGC] | Click to Tweet
50% of firms report owners canceled, postponed, or scaled back projects due to increasing costs. [AGC] | Click to Tweet
84% of firms report construction costs have been higher than anticipated. [AGC] | Click to Tweet
The two most common challenges raised by construction businesses were cost pressures – namely cost of raw materials (cited by 52% of businesses), followed by labor costs (37%). [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
82.5% of construction materials have experienced a signifcant cost increase since 2020. Average material price increased by 19%. [Gordian] | Click to Tweet
53% of contractors in the U.S. feel that time constraints/ urgency of decisions presented the greatest risk to decision making. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
83% of construction firms report their biggest priority to address market volatility and poor performance is to improve estimating accuracy of materials and equipment. [KPMG] | Click to Tweet
13.6 months is what the global average of construction dispute length in 2022.. [Arcadis] | Click to Tweet
From 2021 to 2022 the average value of construction disputes in North America increased by 42% and remains at historically high levels compared to 2021 and earlier. [Arcadis] | Click to Tweet
U.S. $42.8 million was the global average of construction disputes in 2022. [Arcadis] | Click to Tweet
Meaning, $31.3 billion in rework was caused by poor project data and miscommunication in the U.S. alone in 2018. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
Roughly 4-6% of total project cost is the median cost of rework—but only taking into consideration direct cost or reported rework. [Navigant Construction Forum] | Click to Tweet
9% of total project cost is closer to the actual total cost of rework—considering both direct and indirect factors combined. [Navigant Construction Forum] | Click to Tweet
Between 2% and 20% of total costs is the estimated amount of rework, which has a negative impact on a project schedule. [Becht] | Click to Tweet
The number of workers who are either employed or unemployed and looking for work decreased by just over 2.3 million people since February 2020. [For Construction Pros] | Click to Tweet
44% of firms indicated labor shortages caused them to lengthen completion time for projects already underway. [AGC] | Click to Tweet
Percentage of young construction workers declined by 30% from 2005-2016. [BuildZoom] | Click to Tweet
56,000 unfilled construction positions in September 2023.. [ABC] | Click to Tweet
56% of high trust construction companies report good (low) turnover rates – saving them up to $750,000 annually. [Autodesk + FMI] |Click to Tweet
High trust construction firms are 2X as confident in meeting project deadlines – saving them up to $4 million annually. [Autodesk + FMI] |Click to Tweet
At high trust companies, 4 out of 5 projects are for repeat customers, potentially increasing gross margins by 2-7%. [Autodesk + FMI] |Click to Tweet
High trust construction companies are 2X as likely to be explicit about requests. [Autodesk + FMI] |Click to Tweet
51% of high trust construction firms would retain their staff even without confirmed pipeline of work. [Autodesk + FMI] |Click to Tweet
43% of high trust construction companies make collaboration central to how they work. [Autodesk + FMI] |Click to Tweet
High trust companies are 2X more likely to have managers that share consistent feedback. [Autodesk + FMI] |Click to Tweet
45% of construction professionals report spending more time than expected on non-optimal activities. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
Construction management and executive level employees spend an average of 11.5 hours per week researching and analyzing data. [Deloitte + Autodesk] | Click to Tweet
65% of firms report projects they work on have been delayed because of supply chain challenges. [AGC] | Click to Tweet
35% of construction professionals’ time is spent (over 14 hours per week) on non-productive activities including looking for project information, conflict resolution and dealing with mistakes and rework. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
60% of general contractors see problems with coordination and communication between project team members and issues with the quality of contract documents as the key contributors to decreased labor productivity. [Autodesk & Dodge Data & Analytics] | Click to Tweet
50% variation in productivity of two groups of workers doing identical jobs on the same site and at the same time. This gap in productivity was found to vary by 500% at different sites. [Sourceable] | Click to Tweet
30.9% of construction industry professionals say that the top reason for miscommunication is unresponsiveness to questions/requests. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
50% of E&C firms (and 33% of project owners) plan to continue building with significant investment in technologies designed to enhance their delivery of capital programs. [KPMG] | Click to Tweet
91% of firms agree that their employees need to possess digital technology skills to be successful as firms adopt new labor-saving technologies. [AGC] | Click to Tweet
Only 16% of executives surveyed say their organizations have fully integrated systems and tools. [KPMG] | Click to Tweet
A significant benefit of improved data usage is its ability to improve safety conditions on site, identified as a significant benefit by 24% of businesses. [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
95% of all data captured in construction and engineering industry goes unused. [FMI] | Click to Tweet
36% of construction professionals cited the reason technology failed was because of poor fit with current processes and procedures. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
The average construction business captures 11 different types of data but only analyzes 3 types. [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
35.2% of construction firms cite “lack of staff to support the technology” as the primary limiting factor to adopting new technology. [JB Knowledge] | Click to Tweet
28% of UK construction firms say that lacking the information they need on-site is the single biggest factor impacting their productivity. [Autodesk] | Click to Tweet
59% of companies state that their workforce doesn’t have the skills needed to work with BIM. [CIOB] | Click to Tweet
By 2025, the global data volume will reach 175 zettabytes, or 175 billion terabytes. This figure represents a five-fold increase from 2018. [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
75% of respondents stated an increasing need for rapid decision-making in the field. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
97% of surveyed businesses identified one benefit from greater use of data, with reductions in costs the most common benefit identified by 33% of businesses. [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
80% of construction businesses are classified as beginner or emerging levels of data capabilities. [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
Leaders in data capabilities could see a 2.7 percentage point increase in expected profit growth compared with beginners. This uplift represents a 50% increase in average profit growth from 4.4% to 7.1% per year. [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
94% of construction businesses believe that data collection and analysis has been effective for decision making. [Autodesk + Deloitte]|Click to Tweet
Data leaders in construction are more likely to be using IoT (9X more likely), mobile apps (4X more likely), wearables (4X more likely), and AI and machine learning (7X more likely). [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
Only 36% of firms have implemented a process for identifying bad data and repairing it. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
14% of all construction rework may have been caused by bad data creating $88.69 billion in avoidable rework globally. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
41% of contractors agreed that non-standardized data input leads to inconsistent, inaccurate, incomplete, and unusable data. [Autodesk + Dodge Report] | Click to Tweet
97% of construction businesses identify benefits from greater use of data, with reducing costs the most common. [Autodesk + Deloitte] | Click to Tweet
70% of contractors believe that advanced technologies can increase productivity (78%), improve schedule (75%), and enhance safety (79%). [USG + U.S. Chamber of Commerce] | Click to Tweet
75% of construction companies in Singapore and 61% of construction firms in Australia believe the role of technology is essential or very important when it comes to quality and safety management. [University of Melbourne + Autodesk] | Click to Tweet
44% of construction firms state that AI and robotics will positively impact construction costs by automating manual, error prone tasks. [AGC] | Click to Tweet
41% say AI and robotics will improve the quality of construction jobs and make workers safer and more productive. [AGC]| Click to Tweet
40% of construction firms report adopting AI – although many are in early stages. [KPMG] | Click to Tweet
52% consider the needs of field staff a top consideration for investing in technology. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
But only 28% actually receive feedback from field staff before investing in technology. [Autodesk + FMI] | Click to Tweet
60% of general contractors and trades feel using software to manage safety and/or inspections during construction is of high value to improving this process. [Autodesk & Dodge Data & Analytics] | Click to Tweet
AI has the potential to increase the construction industry’s profits by 71% by 2035. [Accenture] | Click to Tweet
AI is forecasted to reach $13.5 billion by 2030 in the construction industry. [Adroit] | Click to Tweet
With the help of data and technology, the industry is poised for big changes in the coming years—will you be another construction industry statistic or an outlier moving the needle? Accessing the right information and embracing innovation not only benefits your company and project’s ROI, but the whole industry wins as a result.
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Which construction industry statistics are the most meaningful to your business? Share your thoughts in our comments section below.
Grace Ellis
As Manager of Content Marketing Strategy at Autodesk and Editor in Chief of the Digital Builder Blog, Grace has nearly 15 years of experience creating world-class content for technology firms. She has been working within the construction technology space for the last 6+ years and is passionate about empowering industry professionals with cutting-edge tools and leading strategies that improve the quality of their jobs and lives.
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