The textile industry is spread across every continent, but production is heavily concentrated in Asia. China alone accounts for roughly a quarter of all global textile exports, and three of its coastal provinces produce over 70% of the country’s output. Beyond China, major manufacturing centers stretch across South and Southeast Asia, Turkey, and parts of Europe, with each region specializing in different types of fabric and finished goods. Globally, about 430 million people work in fashion and textile production as of 2025.
China Dominates Global Production
China is the world’s largest textile exporter by a wide margin. The country is also the top cotton grower, producing about 32 million bales in the 2024/2025 season, which gives its mills direct access to raw material.
Within China, production clusters along the eastern coast. Over 70% of the country’s textile and apparel output is concentrated in three provinces: Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. These provinces sit along the Pearl River and Yangtze River deltas, where port access makes exporting efficient. Guangdong alone accounts for roughly 20% of China’s textile exports, specializing in finished garments. Zhejiang is known for synthetic fabrics, knitted goods, and the massive wholesale markets in cities like Yiwu and Shaoxing. Jiangsu produces silk, cotton textiles, and increasingly high-tech fabrics.
South and Southeast Asia’s Growing Role
Bangladesh and Vietnam have become two of the fastest-growing textile producers in the world, largely because international brands shifted sourcing there as Chinese labor costs rose.
Bangladesh built its economy around ready-made garments. The sector is centered in and around Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong, where thousands of factories produce everything from basic t-shirts to more complex knit and woven items for Western retailers. Vietnam’s textile industry is more geographically dispersed, with over 10,200 active firms operating across the country as of 2020 and roughly 2.5 million workers in the sector. Ho Chi Minh City and the surrounding southern provinces form the largest cluster, but factories also operate near Hanoi in the north.
India is both a massive producer and a major raw material supplier, growing about 23 million bales of cotton annually. Tamil Nadu (especially the Tiruppur and Coimbatore corridor) is India’s knitwear capital. Gujarat and Maharashtra dominate cotton spinning, while Surat is the country’s center for synthetic and silk-like fabrics. Rajasthan and Varanasi are known for traditional handloom textiles.
Turkey: Europe’s Closest Supplier
Turkey is one of the world’s top textile exporters, and its geographic position between Europe and the Middle East makes it a fast, convenient supplier for European brands that need shorter lead times than Asian factories can offer.
The leading textile cities are Istanbul, Bursa, Denizli, Gaziantep, and Kahramanmaraş. Istanbul serves as the export hub, shipping to European and Middle Eastern markets. Bursa is known for high-quality, environmentally conscious production and creative design work. Denizli specializes in home textiles like towels, bathrobes, bed linens, and duvet covers, with particularly strong sales in European markets. Gaziantep focuses on carpets and rugs, while Kahramanmaraş handles cotton yarn and fabric production.
Europe’s Specialty: Luxury and Technical Fabrics
Western Europe no longer competes on volume, but it remains the center of high-end textile production. Italy is the clearest example. The Biella district in Piedmont is a major center of the Italian woolen industry, also producing cotton, silk, and linen textiles. The Prato district near Florence specializes in recycled wool and fast-turnaround fabric production. Como, near the Swiss border, has been Italy’s silk capital for centuries and still supplies luxury fashion houses.
Germany, France, and the Netherlands focus increasingly on technical textiles: engineered fabrics used in automotive interiors, medical devices, construction materials, and protective equipment. The Asia-Pacific region holds the largest share of the technical textiles market overall, driven by cheap labor and access to raw materials, but European producers compete on innovation and performance standards rather than price.
Where Raw Materials Come From
The location of textile factories is partly shaped by access to raw materials, though global shipping has loosened that connection. The top five cotton-producing countries for the 2024/2025 season are China (27% of global production), India (20%), Brazil (14%), the United States (12%), and Australia (5%). China and India both grow and process cotton domestically. The United States and Brazil, by contrast, export most of their cotton to mills in Asia.
Synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon depend on petrochemical feedstocks, which is one reason production clusters near oil-refining infrastructure in China, South Korea, and Taiwan. Wool production is concentrated in Australia, New Zealand, and parts of South America, but the raw fiber is typically shipped to mills in China or Italy for processing.
Why Production Concentrates Where It Does
Three factors explain why textile manufacturing clusters in specific regions rather than spreading evenly. The first is labor cost. Sewing and finishing garments remains labor-intensive work that’s difficult to automate, so countries with large, low-cost workforces attract factories. The second is infrastructure. Ports, reliable electricity, and established supply chains (spinning mills near weaving mills near garment factories) create self-reinforcing clusters. The third is trade policy. Free trade agreements and tariff structures steer production toward certain countries. Bangladesh, for example, benefits from duty-free access to European markets, which makes it more competitive than countries with similar labor costs but less favorable trade terms.
The result is a global industry where basic, high-volume textiles are overwhelmingly produced in Asia, mid-range and fast-turnaround goods come from Turkey and parts of Eastern Europe, and luxury or highly technical fabrics are made in Western Europe and increasingly in specialized facilities across East Asia.