Self-Storage Industry Statistics

In this article we will give you some self-storage statistics from the USA. The storage industry has grown exponentially over the years. Homeowners and small businesses acquire more and more stuff over the years, and have less room to store these items in their own place. That’s when the concept of self-storage was born. People will pay to store their items to make space for more items. 

Since most Americans have a hard time parting ways with their belongings, the need for self-storage grew even larger. Sometimes you have to keep your items (for example the storage of important documents).

To learn more about the world of self-storage, we’ve compiled a list of interesting facts and statistics of this industry. We hope you will like these facts.

5 Self-Storage Statistics and Facts

1. There are more self-storage units than fast food restaurants in the USA.

Think about it for a minute. In total there are about 52,786 storage units in the United States. If we add up all the McDonald’sm  Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Dunkin’ Donuts and Wendy’s restaurants, we get a number of 50,152. 

There are more self-storage units in the USA, than fast food restaurants. So we can conclude that there are a lot of them!

 

2. 10×10 is the most popular size of storage unit.

According to a study o fIBISWorld, the most popular storage unit size is 10-by-10 feet. 

10×20 and 10×15 are also popular storage unit sizes. The least popular size seems to be 5×5 storage units, meaning that people prefer to rent larger storage units.

10-by-20 is a close second and then 10-by-15. 5×5 storage units are the least popular standard storage unit size.

 

3. The self-storage landscape is getting more competitive in 2021.

The self-storage industry is highly fragmented. There seem to be a handful of large players in the industry (they make up about 18% of the total market).

Self-storage industry data has revealed that small operators own about 74 percent of all storage facilities. 

If a more personal customer service is important for you,we recommend choosing one of the smaller self-storage services such as Honor Storage.

 

4. There’s an ever-growing demand for space

According to this article, consumers are always looking for extra space to store their items. One in 11 Americans pays an average of $91 per month to use self-storage units. 

A demographic that has helped this industry are millennials that are moving into increasingly crowded urban areas, such as many areas in California.

Besides that, small businesses need to clear their inventory, young families might look for more affordable homes, and baby boomers can be downsizing for their retirement. All these things are good for storage unit owners.

 

5. Amount of rentable self-storage space in the U.S is increasing

According to the 2021 edition of the Self-Storage almanac, the numbers look quite optimistic. In the US, 1.9 billion square feet of storage space is currently in operation. That means that there is 5.9 square feet per person of self-storage space available.

Currently, 10.6% of households rent a self-storage unit. This means around 13.5 million households are currently using some sort of storage services.

 

Outlook on the Self-Storage Industry

The self-storage industry is experiencing growth in other parts of the world as well. Both in Europe, and Asia, numbers of storage facilities continue to grow.

Analysts are even predicting that self-storage might become the next big thing in Asia. So it’s not only the USA, that has benefited from large growth in the self-storage industry. 

 

Visit our Honor Storage blog to learn more about the self-storage industry..

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