Gunpowder today is used primarily to propel bullets in firearms, launch fireworks, and support a handful of niche industrial and safety applications. The original formula, black powder, has been largely replaced by smokeless powder for most purposes, but both remain in active production and widespread use. The global smokeless powder market alone was valued at $2.56 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $3.11 billion by 2029.
Two Types of Gunpowder Still in Use
When people say “gunpowder,” they usually mean one of two things. The first is black powder, the original mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate that dates back centuries. The second is smokeless powder, a more modern propellant based on nitrocellulose. Some smokeless powders also contain nitroglycerin (called double-base powders), while a third category adds nitroguanidine for military applications.
Smokeless powder burns more efficiently, produces far less smoke, and generates higher pressures than black powder. That’s why it dominates modern ammunition. Black powder still has specific roles where its characteristics are either required or preferred, particularly in fireworks, muzzleloading firearms, and historical reenactment.
Civilian Ammunition and Sport Shooting
The single largest consumer of gunpowder today is the civilian ammunition market. Global civilian firearm ownership exceeds 850 million units, and annual ammunition consumption tops 20 billion rounds worldwide. In the United States alone, more than 9 billion rounds are produced each year for a civilian gun stock of over 390 million firearms.
About 62% of that ammunition goes to sport shooting and target practice, while 28% is tied to hunting. The most popular calibers, 9 mm handgun and 5.56 mm rifle, together account for 54% of civilian consumption. Every one of those rounds relies on a small charge of smokeless powder ignited by a primer to propel the bullet. Ammunition manufacturers like Winchester use both domestically produced and imported smokeless powder to keep up with demand, and recreational shooting participation now exceeds 60 million people globally.
Military and Law Enforcement Use
Modern military and police ammunition works the same way as civilian rounds: smokeless powder propels a projectile from a cartridge case. The difference is scale and specification. Military propellants are manufactured to tighter tolerances and often use triple-base formulations (adding nitroguanidine) to reduce muzzle flash and barrel erosion in automatic weapons. Smokeless powder also serves as the propellant in artillery shells, tank rounds, and other large-caliber ordnance, though the specific formulations vary widely depending on the weapon system.
Fireworks and Pyrotechnics
Black powder plays an essential role in professional fireworks displays. It serves as the lift charge, the small explosion at the base of a firework shell that launches it into the sky. It also functions as the burst charge inside the shell, the component that breaks the shell open at altitude and ignites the colored stars inside. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives classifies black powder as both a propellant and an explosive, and its use in fireworks and pyrotechnics remains one of its primary modern applications.
The colors you see in a fireworks display come from metal salts packed into the individual stars, not from the gunpowder itself. Strontium compounds produce red, barium compounds produce green, and sodium compounds produce yellow. But without black powder to launch and burst the shells, none of those colors would reach the sky.
Muzzleloader Hunting and Reenactment
Black powder and its substitutes support a dedicated community of muzzleloader hunters and historical firearms enthusiasts. Many U.S. states designate a special portion of deer season exclusively for muzzleloading firearms, and some states explicitly require the use of black powder or an approved equivalent during that period, prohibiting smokeless powder entirely.
Because traditional black powder can be messy and corrosive, several substitutes have become popular. Pyrodex, made by Hodgdon, is the most widely available. It comes in different granularities for rifles, shotguns, and pistols. Hodgdon also produces Triple Seven, a sulfur-free alternative that uses potassium perchlorate and leaves less residue in the barrel. Civil War reenactors and other living history groups also consume significant quantities of black powder for blank firing in period-correct firearms.
Mining and Construction
Black powder was once the backbone of mining and quarrying, but it has been almost entirely displaced by modern explosives. Water gels, slurries, emulsions, and ammonium nitrate/fuel oil (ANFO) blends are now the dominant blasting agents in commercial operations. Black powder was outlawed in U.S. underground coal mines decades ago because it can ignite coal dust and methane, creating catastrophic explosion hazards. It still sees limited use in some developing countries, and small quantities are occasionally used in specialty quarrying or demolition where a slower, lower-pressure detonation is desirable.
Signal Flares and Safety Devices
Emergency signal flares, particularly those used in maritime settings, rely on pyrotechnic compositions that share ancestry with gunpowder. Military and civilian flares use mixtures of metal powders (typically magnesium), oxidizers like potassium perchlorate, and metal salts to produce bright, colored flames visible for miles. While these aren’t gunpowder in the traditional sense, they use the same fundamental chemistry: a fuel, an oxidizer, and a means of ignition.
Automotive airbags use a related principle. When a crash sensor triggers, a small propellant charge ignites and rapidly produces gas to inflate the bag. Early airbag inflators used sodium azide, and some modern designs incorporate compounds like nitroguanidine or ammonium nitrate as propellants. These are chemical cousins of the triple-base smokeless powders used in military ammunition, adapted for a completely different purpose.
Why Black Powder Hasn’t Disappeared
Given that smokeless powder outperforms black powder in nearly every measurable way, it might seem surprising that black powder is still manufactured at all. The reason is simple: certain applications specifically need its properties. Fireworks require a fast-burning, low-pressure explosive for lift and burst charges. Muzzleloading firearms are designed around black powder’s pressure curve and burning rate. And federal regulations in the U.S. treat black powder differently from smokeless powder, making it accessible for uses where higher-performance propellants would be unnecessary or dangerous.
Smokeless powder, meanwhile, continues to grow as a global industry, driven by expanding recreational shooting participation and military modernization programs. The market is expected to grow at roughly 3.8% to 4.2% annually through the end of the decade, reflecting steady demand across both civilian and defense sectors.