Drone Industry To Grow To '£29.8bn By 2026'

The global drone market will grow by 9.4% over the next five years to become a £29.8bn industry by 2026. 

That's the findings in the recently-published Drone Market Report 2021-2026, compiled by German company Drone Industry Insights (Droneii).

The table below, taken from the findings, shows the current size of the market, and how it is projected to rise.

The report also shows that commercial drones are being used in a vast majority of industries, and the use of enterprise UAS will continue to climb. 

Other key takeaways from the report are:

• Drone applications in the energy industry are on path to earn just under £4.26bn throughout the globe.

• Other industries such as construction and agriculture are not far behind, and some industries related to warehousing and insurance will grow at a more rapid pace in the next 5 years.

• Drone services, such as mapping and inspections among dozens of others, represent roughly 78% of global drone-related revenue and are the main driving force in the market.

• Some of these also experienced a positive impact from the pandemic by assisting with the remote delivery of coronavirus test kits and vaccines that allowed people to keep a safe distance and avoid infection.

• Drone hardware is forecasted to experience strong growth.

• Unit sales will grow from 828,000 in 2021 to almost 1.4 million in 2026 at 10.6% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate).

• The commercial drone market today is led regionally by Asia thanks to China and Japan, while South America and India are growing fastest at the regional and country levels respectively.

The report, based on proprietary data and market models supported by primary and secondary sources, is the latest edition of Droneii’s yearly study on the global drone market.

It analyses the drone industry by segment (hardware, software, services), by industry sector (energy, construction, agriculture, etc), by application method (e.g. mapping & surveying, inspection, and delivery, among others) and provides a more in-depth look into all regional markets as well as a deeper analysis of the top 10 countries for drones.

*The monetary figures were US Dollars in the original report, but have been converted to UK pound sterling for this article.