Laptop industry statistics span more than laptop shipments. Company results show the scale of broad personal-computer businesses, while U.S. household, labor-market and occupational data show where computers are used and which work patterns support mobile computing.
ENERGY STAR specifications add a standards-based view of product categories, power management and measured fields.
Key Laptop Industry Statistics
The most useful headline figures cover industry scale, access, work, careers and product standards:
- In fiscal 2024, HP reported $53.6 billion in global company net revenue, down 0.3% year over year.
- In fiscal Q4 2024, HP Personal Systems revenue was $9.6 billion globally, up 2% year over year.
- In fiscal Q4 2024, HP commercial Personal Systems revenue rose 5% globally year over year.
- In fiscal 2025, Dell reported $95.6 billion in global total revenue, up 8% year over year.
- In fiscal 2025, Dell Client Solutions Group revenue was $48.4 billion globally, down 1% year over year.
- In the 2021 U.S. ACS, 81% of households owned at least one desktop or laptop computer.
- In the 2021 U.S. ACS, 56% of U.S. households had a desktop or laptop, smartphone, tablet and broadband connection.
- In the 2021 U.S. ACS, 90% of U.S. households had some type of internet subscription.
- In the 2025 U.S. annual average, 157.736 million people age 16 and over were at work.
- In 2025, U.S. workers age 16 and over teleworked or worked at home for pay for 5.9 hours per week on average.
- In 2025, teleworked or at-home-for-pay hours represented 15.5% of weekly hours for U.S. workers age 16 and over.
- In the 2025 U.S. annual average, 68.618 million people worked in management, professional and related occupations.
- In 2023, telework was available to 53.5% of U.S. computer and mathematical workers.
- In 2025, about 1.7 million software developers held U.S. jobs.
- In May 2025, the U.S. median annual wage for software developers was $135,980.
- From 2025 to 2035, employment of U.S. software developers, QA analysts and testers is projected to grow 10%.
- From 2025 to 2035, BLS projects about 106,100 openings per year for U.S. software developers, QA analysts and testers.
- ENERGY STAR Version 9.0 permits a shipped system-sleep default of no more than 30 minutes for eligible notebooks.
Contents
- Laptop and PC industry scale
- Household computer access and digital inclusion
- Remote-work and professional computer use
- Computer-occupation requirements
- Software workforce, pay and demand
- Laptop efficiency standards and product fields
Laptop and PC Industry Scale in Company Results
Company reporting is useful for measuring business scale, but the reported segments are not interchangeable with laptop sales. HP’s Personal Systems segment is broader than laptops, Dell’s Client Solutions Group includes multiple PC form factors and services, and Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group includes PCs and smartphones.
| Company measure | Period | Reported result |
|---|---|---|
| HP company net revenue | Fiscal 2024 | $53.6 billion, down 0.3% year over year |
| HP Personal Systems net revenue | Fiscal Q4 2024 | $9.6 billion, up 2% year over year |
| Dell total revenue | Fiscal 2025 | $95.6 billion, up 8% year over year |
| Dell Client Solutions Group revenue | Fiscal 2025 | $48.4 billion, down 1% year over year |
| Lenovo Intelligent Devices Group revenue | 4Q FY25/26 | $14.614 billion, up 24% year over year |
Sources: HP fiscal 2024 results, Dell fiscal 2025 results, and Lenovo FY25/26 Q4 Results Presentation.
HP’s fiscal Q4 2024 mix shows different movement by customer type: consumer Personal Systems revenue fell 4% year over year, while commercial revenue rose 5%. Total Personal Systems units increased 1%; consumer units decreased 3% and commercial units increased 4%.
Dell’s fiscal Q4 2025 Client Solutions results likewise separated customer patterns: commercial Client revenue was $10.0 billion, up 5% year over year, while consumer Client revenue was $1.9 billion, down 12%. These results describe company segments, not the whole laptop market.
Household Computer Access and Laptop Industry Data
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey measures household access and device combinations rather than laptop sales. Its definitions matter: “some type of computer” is broader than a laptop or desktop, and the combined measure includes a desktop or laptop, smartphone, tablet and broadband connection.
| 2021 U.S. ACS measure | Population | Result |
|---|---|---|
| At least one desktop or laptop | U.S. households | 81% |
| Desktop or laptop, smartphone, tablet and broadband | U.S. households | 56% |
| Any internet subscription | U.S. households | 90% |
| Some type of computer | Households with householder age 65+ | 88% |
| Some type of computer | Households with children under 18 | 99% |
Source: Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2021.
Computer ownership exceeded 96% for households in every younger householder age group in the 2021 ACS. By contrast, about 75% of households with a householder age 65 or older owned a smartphone, compared with about 98% of households with a householder under age 35.
Broadband access also varied by age: 81% of households with a householder age 65 or older had broadband in 2021. These figures describe U.S. household digital inclusion and should not be read as a global laptop-adoption rate.
Remote-Work Trends and Professional Computer Use
The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2025 annual averages show how much paid work occurred remotely or at home, without identifying the device used. That distinction is important for laptop analysis: telework supports a need for computing access, but it does not prove that a laptop was the device.
- The 2025 annual average counted 157.736 million U.S. people at work age 16 and over.
- Full-time U.S. workers accounted for 130.886 million people at work, while part-time workers accounted for 26.850 million.
- U.S. workers age 16 and over teleworked or worked at home for pay for 5.9 hours per week on average.
- Teleworked or at-home-for-pay hours represented 15.5% of weekly hours for U.S. workers age 16 and over.
- Management, professional and related occupations had 68.618 million people at work.
- Business and financial operations occupations had 39.8% of weekly hours teleworked or worked at home for pay.
- Computer and mathematical occupations had 6.540 million people at work.
Source: BLS 2025 Annual Averages, Table 62.
Together, these measures indicate the scale of U.S. work performed away from a traditional workplace, while leaving laptop ownership and device choice outside the measurement scope.
Computer-Occupation Requirements Relevant to Mobile Computing
The BLS Occupational Requirements Survey describes job requirements for U.S. computer and mathematical workers in 2023. These are occupational conditions, not laptop-purchase statistics, but they help describe the work environment in which portable computers may be used.
| 2023 occupational measure | Share of U.S. computer and mathematical workers |
|---|---|
| More-than-basic people skills required | 96.1% |
| Pause control required | 96.0% |
| Telework available | 53.5% |
| Bachelor’s degree required | 65.5% |
| Prior work experience required | 82.9% |
| On-the-job training required | 62.1% |
| Keyboarding required | More than 99.5% |
| Choice of sitting or standing available | 93.0% |
Source: BLS Occupational Requirements Survey: Occupational Profiles.
The strongest concentration is in keyboarding and interpersonal requirements: keyboarding was required for more than 99.5% of workers, and more-than-basic people skills were required for 96.1%. Telework availability reached 53.5%, linking the occupation profile to flexible work without asserting a specific hardware choice.
Software Workforce Scale, Pay and Demand
Software employment is a major professional-computing context for the laptop industry. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reports estimates for 2025, observed wage measures for May 2025, and forecasts for 2025–2035; these are labor-market statistics, not laptop-demand forecasts.
| U.S. software occupation or measure | Period | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Software developers | 2025 | About 1.7 million jobs |
| Software QA analysts and testers | 2025 | About 187,600 jobs |
| Software developer median annual wage | May 2025 | $135,980 |
| QA analyst and tester median annual wage | May 2025 | $104,300 |
| Software developers in software publishing, median wage | May 2025 | $164,550 |
| Developers, QA analysts and testers employment outlook | 2025–2035 | 10% projected growth |
| Annual openings for developers, QA analysts and testers | 2025–2035 | About 106,100 per year |
Source: BLS Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers.
Industry distribution gives additional context. In 2025, computer systems design and related services employed 29% of software developers, finance and insurance employed 11%, software publishers employed 10%, and manufacturing employed 8%.
For software quality assurance analysts and testers, computer systems design and related services employed 30% of workers. BLS estimates that software developer employment will rise from 1,717,800 in 2025 to a projected 1,892,600 in 2035.
The wage figures exclude self-employed workers, and the projected openings include replacement needs and growth. The forecast therefore indicates labor demand, not the number of laptops expected to be sold.
Laptop Energy-Efficiency Standards and Product Fields
ENERGY STAR Version 9.0 provides a standards-based lens on eligible computer products. EPA finalized the notebook, portable all-in-one and slate/tablets submission template on January 28, 2025, while the ENERGY STAR computer specification is listed as effective October 27, 2025.
The specification distinguishes seven portable product types: notebook, slate/tablet, two-in-one notebook, portable all-in-one, mobile workstation, multi-screen notebook and ruggedized notebook. This classification shows the breadth of portable products covered by the template, not their market shares.
Several fields describe eligibility and product configuration rather than average market behavior:
- The shipped system-sleep default may be no more than 30 minutes for an eligible notebook.
- The shipped display-sleep default may be no more than 15 minutes for an eligible notebook.
- The notebook template has one required yes/no field for whether a model has a dedicated neural processing unit.
- ENERGY STAR Version 9.0 sets the base TEC allowance field maximum at 200 kWh.
- The notebook template requires two quantitative fields for total battery capacity in watt-hours and measured off-mode power in watts.
Sources: ENERGY STAR notebook and portable computer template and ENERGY STAR Computers.
These values are certification parameters and required reporting fields. They do not represent annual use for every laptop, the average battery capacity of the market, or the share of models carrying a particular feature.