The global natural stone market is estimated at $43.1 billion in 2025, although published estimates vary widely because analysts define natural stone differently. The figures below cover global market size and forecasts, UK production and quarrying, UK trade, and the carbon and waste performance of the sector.
Key highlights
• The global natural stone market reached $43.1 billion in 2025 and is forecast at $44.74 billion in 2026.
• Asia-Pacific held 48% of global natural stone revenue in 2025, the largest regional share.
• UK building stone production was 0.7 million tonnes in 2023, below the 1 million tonne historical average.
• The UK imported 4.3 million tonnes of building stone in 2024, worth £212 million.
• UK building stone exports totalled 8,900 tonnes in 2024, 0.2% of import volume.
• Norway supplied 94% of UK building stone import volume in 2024, and 93% was crude granite.
• Natural stone cladding emits 21.4 kg CO2e/m² against 62.3 kg CO2e/m² for precast concrete.
• 71% of quarried dimension stone becomes waste, leaving a 29% recovery rate into finished product.
Market Size and Growth
Published valuations of the global market diverge widely because analysts draw the category boundary in different places. The spread between the lowest and highest forecasts matters more than any single figure.
- The global natural stone market was valued at $43.1 billion in 2025, rising to $44.74 billion in 2026, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%.
- Forecasts for the 2026 global market span $39.64 billion to $44.74 billion, a spread of $5.1 billion between competing market definitions.
- Annual growth forecasts for the global market across the 2026 to 2034 period range from 3.4% to 5.44%, a spread of more than 2 percentage points.
- The global market is forecast to reach $49.66 billion by 2031, up from $39.64 billion in 2026, an annual rate of 4.62%.
- Separate forecasts put the global market at $56.31 billion by 2034 and $65.70 billion by 2035.
Quarrying and Production
UK dimension stone extraction is a small fraction of total mineral output, and domestic production sits below its long-run average. These figures set UK quarrying against the global production base.
- UK building and dimension stone production was 0.7 million tonnes in 2023, 30% below the 1 million tonne figure cited as the historical annual average.
- UK primary aggregate production totalled 186.3 million tonnes in 2024, 266 times the volume of building and dimension stone quarried in 2023.
- Crushed rock made up 132.2 million tonnes, or 71%, of UK primary aggregate production in 2024, with sand and gravel accounting for 54.1 million tonnes.
- In 2020, global dimension stone quarrying produced 316 million tonnes of gross material, with 60% of that output coming from China, India and Turkey combined.
Regional Markets
Asia-Pacific dominates global consumption, while UK growth is expected to come from price rather than volume. The figures below set regional shares against the forecasts attached to each market.
- Asia-Pacific accounted for 48% of global natural stone revenue in 2025, the largest share of any region.
- Asia-Pacific is forecast to grow at between 5.88% and 6.35% a year, ahead of the 3.4% to 5.44% range forecast for the global market.
- Europe is forecast to hold 25% of the global natural stone market by 2035, roughly half the Asia-Pacific share recorded in 2025.
- UK building stone market value is forecast to grow 2.4% a year through 2035, against volume growth of 0.5% to 0.9%, implying a rising price per tonne.
- The UK natural stone slab market was worth $2.5 billion in 2022 and is forecast to reach $3.06 billion by 2030, an annual rate of 2.5%.
- UK quarrying of ornamental and building stone, limestone, gypsum, chalk and slate was valued at €6.63 billion in 2024 and is forecast at €7.56 billion by 2028, a 14% rise.
UK Trade and Imports
The UK buys far more building stone than it sells, and almost all of it arrives from a single country in raw form. These figures show the scale and the concentration of that dependence.
- 4.3 million tonnes of granite, sandstone and other building stone entered the UK in 2024, worth £212 million, or roughly £49 per tonne.
- Norway supplied 94% of UK building stone import volume in 2024, making it the dominant source market.
- Crude granite made up 93% of UK building stone imports in 2024, rather than finished building products.
- UK building stone exports reached 8,900 tonnes in 2024, up 98% on the previous year but still only 0.2% of the 4.3 million tonnes imported.
Stone Types and Applications
Construction absorbs most natural stone output, but growth is uneven across materials, formats and colours. The figures below show where revenue sits now and which segments are forecast to move fastest.
- In 2025, 67% of natural stone consumption was linked to construction and architecture, leaving 33% across all other end uses.
- Granite held 31% of global natural stone revenue in 2025, the largest share of any single material.
- Marble is forecast to grow at 5.78% a year through 2031, ahead of the 3.4% to 5.44% range forecast for the market overall.
- Slabs accounted for 45% of natural stone revenue in 2025, while tiles are forecast to grow faster, at 5.83% a year through 2031.
- White and light-coloured stones held 30% of the market in 2025, with darker products forecast to grow at 5.42% a year through 2031.
Sustainability and Carbon
Natural stone compares well against engineered alternatives on embodied carbon, though the range within stone itself is wide. Transport distance between quarry and processing plant accounts for much of that variation.
- Natural stone cladding has a global warming potential of 21.4 kg CO2e/m², against 62.3 kg CO2e/m² for precast concrete cladding, 66% lower.
- Natural stone flooring records 22.0 kg CO2e/m², against 82.2 kg CO2e/m² for terrazzo flooring, 73% lower.
- Two-centimetre natural stone slabs average 12.5 kg CO2e/m², ranging from 5.1 kg CO2e/m² to 36.7 kg CO2e/m² depending on the supply chain.
- Slabs quarried and processed within Italy average 8.6 kg CO2e/m², against 25.3 kg CO2e/m² where the stone is quarried abroad and processed in Italy, nearly three times higher.
Waste and Circularity
Most of the rock cut from a dimension stone quarry never reaches a customer. These figures quantify the losses at each stage and show how much steeper they get in the highest-output marble districts.
- 51% of material extracted from dimension stone quarries becomes waste at the quarry face.
- A further 41% of the material that reaches processing plants is lost as waste during processing.
- 71% of quarried dimension stone is lost across extraction and processing combined, leaving a recovery rate of 29% into finished product.
- Marble slurry waste is estimated at 30% of excavated marble volume.
- A further 15-20% of marble is lost during processing.
- Carrara quarries averaged 73.7% waste between 2012 and 2017, rising to 75% of extracted material in 2020.
Sources
- USGS - Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Dimension Stone.
- Mineral Products Association - Profile of the UK Mineral Products Industry 2025.
- UK Minerals Yearbook - United Kingdom Minerals Yearbook 2025.
- UK Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - Mining and Quarrying Sector Data, 2026.
- IndexBox - UK Granite, Sandstone and Other Building Stone Market Overview, 2026.
- IndexBox - UK Building Stone Market Forecasts, 2025.
- ReportLinker - UK Ornamental and Building Stone Quarrying Forecast, 2024.
- Imperial Stone Group - Global and UK Natural Stone Industry Statistics and Trends, 2026.
- Mordor Intelligence - Natural Stone Market Size, Trends and Share, 2026.
- IMARC Group - Natural Stone Market Size, Share and Growth, 2026.
- Market Research Future - Natural Stone Market Size and Share, 2035.
- Global Growth Insights - Natural Stone Market Share and Insights, 2035.
- Natural Stone Institute - Embodied Carbon and Natural Stone, 2026.
- Natural Stone Sustainability Association - Italian Natural Stone Life Cycle Assessment, 2024.
- Tazzini et al. - Managing Marble Quarry Waste, Sustainability, 2024.
- University of Evora - Development of Stone Composites, Sustainability, 2024.
- National Library of Medicine - Carbon Emissions from Plaza Ground Paving, 2024.
- Frontiers in Sustainable Cities - Life Cycle Assessment of Natural-Stone Breakwaters, 2025.
