RFID Market Set to Reach US$23 Billion by 2036, Finds New IDTechEx Market Report

BOSTON, Aug. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The global RFID market is set to continue its expansion in 2025. IDTechEx forecasts the RFID market to reach US$15.6 billion, up from US$15 billion in 2024. Looking further ahead, the market is expected to grow to US$23 billion by 2036. This comprises RFID labels, cards, fobs, and any other form factors, as well as tags, readers, and software/services for both passive and active RFID. Market intelligence firm IDTechEx has been researching the RFID industry for two decades. "RFID 2026-2036: Forecasts, Players and Opportunities", their most recent RFID market research study, offers a thorough review of RFID technologies, applications, players, and markets.

Dr Yu-Han Chang is a Principal Technology Analyst at IDTechEx and co-authored the report alongside IDTechEx CEO Raghu Das. Dr Chang advised that in the UHF sector, the adoption of RFID continues to grow strongly within the retail business, which is the largest application sector in terms of tag numbers. According to IDTechEx, retail apparel alone will require over 31 billion RFID tags in 2025 - though there is still some way to go, with RFID accounting for only about 40% of the total addressable market for apparel. Furthermore, IDTechEx anticipates that the general retail market will continue to grow, driven by mandates such as Walmart's on tagging retail items other than apparel. This is expected to continue to generate significant volume growth for the sector.

Contactless card sales remain the most successful in the HF sector, driven primarily by contactless payment, transit, and secure access applications, with 3.14 billion cards anticipated to be demanded in 2025. However, IDTechEx expects a decrease in demand for this as Mobile wallets continue to replace contactless cards.

Animal tagging (such as pigs, sheep, and pets) remains important in the LF sector because it is still a legal requirement in many more areas, with around 930 million tags expected to be used in this sector in 2025.

Overall, IDTechEx forecasts that around 55 billion passive RFID tags will be sold in 2025, up from 50 billion in 2024, indicating a 10% year-on-year increase. The bulk of this growth is due to passive UHF RFID labels.

However, in 2025, UHF (RAIN RFID) tag sales by value will be just 60% of HF tag sales (including NFC), due to the higher price point of HF tags used for security (such as payments, access, etc) against the cheaper, largely disposable UHF (RAIN) tags used for tagging items. The gap between the overall tag sales, however, is shrinking due to increased activity in the UHF market and a decline in the HF market.

The latest edition of the report, "RFID 2026-2036: Forecasts, Players and Opportunities", is the result of over two decades of immersion in the RFID industry. It offers a comprehensive analysis of the industry, covering passive RFID (UHF, HF, and LF), battery assisted passive, active RFID, and chipless RFID technologies. The report provides an independent assessment based on primary data from interviews with key stakeholders across the value chain, many of whom share confidential data under non-disclosure agreements for aggregated analysis, alongside extensive secondary research. Drawing on IDTechEx's long-standing expertise, the report delivers in-depth forecasts and insights unmatched by other sources.

For more information on this report, including downloadable sample pages, please visit www.IDTechEx.com/RFID.

About IDTechEx

IDTechEx provides trusted independent research on emerging technologies and their markets. Since 1999, we have been helping our clients to understand new technologies, their supply chains, market requirements, opportunities and forecasts. For more information, contact [email protected] or visit www.IDTechEx.com.

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SOURCE IDTechEx