Reference
Houseplant statistics (2026)
Ownership, plant parenthood, plant deaths, spending, wellbeing evidence, and market size. Every number on this page was checked against its primary source, or an archived copy where the original has been taken down. Numbers we could not verify are left out, and we say which ones and why.
How many people own houseplants?
A Trees.com survey of 1,250 American adults (January 2022) found that 68% cared for at least one houseplant during the pandemic, and 24% of those owners bought their first houseplant in that period. Source.
CivicScience put it more conservatively in February 2022: "Nearly half of the Gen Pop owns and regularly cares for houseplants." Source (archived). You will often see "66% of US households own a houseplant" attributed to CivicScience; we could not verify that number at any primary source, so we do not repeat it here (see the missing statistics section).
In Canada, Statistics Canada reports that in 2021, 21% of people grew fruit, herbs, vegetables or flowers indoors for personal use, and that 2022 saw over $1.1 billion in potted plant sales. Source.
The plant parent generation
The survey behind most "plant parent" headlines was run by OnePoll for the furniture retailer Article in January 2020, polling 2,000 US millennials aged 25 to 39. Its original press pages are gone (more on that below), but the wire story survives at major outlets. Verified findings:
- 70% of millennials call themselves a "plant parent". Source.
- The average plant parent has killed seven plants they brought home. Source.
- 67% say taking care of plants is more of a challenge than they bargained for. This is the real finding behind the "67% call themselves plant murderers" line that circulates online; the survey said challenge, not murder. Source.
- 48% are unsure they will keep their plants alive. Source.
- 20% would sooner sit through a root canal than take care of a plant (some outlets reported 19%). Source.
A separate Craftjack survey (October 2021, 1,111 US houseplant owners) filled in the day-to-day picture. The original study page now redirects to a contractor signup form, so citations below point at the Internet Archive copy:
- 1 in 3 people under 40 consider themselves a plant parent.
- The average houseplant owner has four plants, the oldest being five years old, and spends about five minutes per week on plant care.
- Spending on the hobby averages about $75 a year.
- 63% say their collection grew during the pandemic.
- 61% of people under 40 agree "pets are the new kids and plants are the new pets".
- 57% say houseplants supported their mental health during the pandemic.
- Succulents came out as America's favorite houseplant.
All Craftjack findings: Source (archived).
Plant deaths and drop-outs
The same Trees.com survey looked at how the pandemic plant boom ended for the youngest owners. 69% of 18 to 24 year old plant owners killed at least one plant, and 54% of the newcomers in that age group had started the hobby specifically to improve their mental health. By January 2022, 33% of 18 to 24 year olds who kept houseplants during the pandemic had quit the hobby, twice the rate of owners 25 and older (16%). Source.
If your own plants are heading that way, start with how to save an overwatered plant, the single most common killer.
Do houseplants actually improve health and air quality?
The strongest evidence summary is a 2022 systematic review with meta-analyses (42 studies), which "concluded that indoor plants affect participants' functions positively, particularly those of relaxed physiology and enhanced cognition". Source.
On air quality, the often-cited NASA Clean Air Study (1989) did find houseplants removed benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene in sealed test chambers. Source. But a 2020 review in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology calculated it would take 10 to 1,000 plants per square meter of floor space to match the air cleaning that normal building ventilation already provides. Source. Keep plants for the wellbeing benefits, not as air purifiers. We go deeper in snake plant benefits.
Market size
Global market estimates differ widely by firm and definition, so treat any single number with care. Mordor Intelligence puts the indoor plants market at USD 13.12 billion in 2025, reaching USD 16.36 billion by 2031 at a 3.75% CAGR. Source. Persistence Market Research estimates US$ 22.6 billion in 2025, growing to US$ 32.7 billion by 2032. Source. The honest headline: somewhere between $13 billion and $23 billion in 2025, growing at roughly 4 to 5% a year.
Pet safety, from our own data
Of the 59 houseplants in our pet safety checker, 29 are safe for cats and dogs and 30 are toxic under verdicts that follow the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant list. Not sure what you own? Identify it from a photo first.
Why some famous houseplant statistics are missing
Several of the most-quoted numbers in this niche no longer have a source you can check. We left them out rather than repeat them:
- "66% of US households own a houseplant" (CivicScience, 2020). CivicScience's own February 2022 article says "nearly half"; the 2020 study page is no longer findable at any primary source or archive we could locate.
- "Millennials drive 31% of houseplant sales" (Garden Research, 2019). The 2019 Garden Trends Report that carried it was hosted on a subdomain that no longer resolves; the archived landing page is a signup form with no data.
- OnePoll's own domains are gone. Both onepoll.us and onepoll.com now redirect to google.com, and the SWNS press site that carried its survey write-ups is offline, which is why the plant parent survey above is cited via surviving wire stories instead.
- Craftjack's study pages redirect to a signup form since the brand was folded into Angi, which is why its findings are cited via the Internet Archive.
If a statistic you have seen elsewhere is not on this page, that is usually the reason.
How these numbers were verified
Every statistic above was checked on 2026-07-18 by fetching its source and confirming the number appears in the text, exactly as cited. Dead primaries are cited through Internet Archive snapshots and marked "archived". Feel free to cite this page; a link back to it helps us keep it maintained.
Last verified 2026-07-18. Found a number here that has gone stale, or a primary source we missed? Tell us and we will fix it.