Collector's reference
A small, carefully sourced snapshot for curious collectors, writers, and anyone following the secondhand world. Last updated October 5, 2026.
What this page covers
Vintage is wonderfully broad: a cheerful old pitcher, a retired mug, a one-of-a-kind jacket, or a treasure with a story. Public data rarely tracks that whole world neatly, so every number below says exactly what it measures.
For market forecasts, the available figures are specifically about secondhand apparel. For the wider world of shops and reuse, we use government sources and say where their categories begin and end.
The figures
19,466
The U.S. Census Bureau counted 19,466 employer establishments in used merchandise stores in 2023. This classification includes used merchandise, antiques, and secondhand goods, while excluding motor vehicles.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 County Business Patterns ↗14%
The U.S. secondhand apparel market grew 14% in 2024, according to ThredUp's 2025 Resale Report. This is an apparel-only figure, not a measure of the whole vintage market.
Source: ThredUp 2025 Resale Report, reporting 2024 growth ↗$74B
ThredUp projects the U.S. secondhand apparel market will reach $74 billion by 2029. It is a forecast, and it applies to apparel rather than every kind of vintage find.
Source: ThredUp 2025 Resale Report, 2025 forecast ↗$367B
The same report projects a $367 billion global secondhand apparel market by 2029, with a projected 10% compound annual growth rate from 2024 to 2029.
Source: ThredUp 2025 Resale Report, 2025 forecast ↗11.3M
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that landfills received 11.3 million tons of municipal solid-waste textiles in 2018, equal to 7.7% of all material landfilled that year.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2018 data ↗2.5M
The EPA estimates that 2.5 million tons of textiles were recycled in 2018, a 14.7% recycling rate. Its figures cover textiles broadly, including clothing, footwear, sheets, and related materials.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2018 data ↗A note on the numbers
The Census category is a count of employer establishments, not a count of every online seller, market stall, or individual collector. The apparel-market figures are forecasts and should be read as forecasts. The EPA textile figures are the latest data on that page and describe textiles, not all vintage goods.
That precision matters. It lets a reader use a number with confidence, then follow it straight back to the original reporting.
Method & sources
Updated: October 5, 2026. We use named primary public sources where available, and a published market report for the apparel forecasts.
Cite this page
Halynn Vintage. (2026, October 5). Vintage & secondhand shopping statistics: U.S. snapshot. https://halynnvintage.com/secondhand-vintage-statistics/
For a particular figure, please link to its individual statistic above and cite the original source alongside it.