25+ Stats About Mattresses

Statistics About Mattress Sales

• 42 million mattresses sold in 2022, accounting for about $10 billion.
• There are more than 9,200 mattress stores in the United States.
• In 2022, a slightly higher percentage of mattress buyers (43%) purchased online, versus in a physical store (42%), according to a survey.

Statistics About the Life Span of a Mattress

• The average age of a mattress in a U.S. household is 3 years, 8.5 months, according to a survey by The Sleep Doctor. | Learn more

• An estimated 20 million mattresses and box springs are discarded in the United States every year, which comes out to more than 50,000 discarded each day.
• How easy is it to get rid of a mattress? Some 59.9% of surveyed adults say disposing of a mattress is a hassle.
• As much as 90% of the materials in a mattress can be recycled.

Statistics About Mattress Types and Sizes

• 78% of U.S. adults say that a comfortable mattress is an important part of creating a romantic bedroom environment.
• More than half of U.S. adults, or 52%, sleep on a queen-size mattress, according to a survey by The Sleep Doctor. About a quarter, or 25.1%, sleep on a king or California king. | Learn more
• According to a survey by The Sleep Doctor, 34.7% of U.S. adults sleep on a foam mattress, 30.3% sleep on an innerspring, and 7.6% sleep on a hybrid mattress.

• Sleeping on a hard mattress can increase your chances of getting poor sleep by 78%.
• Adults sleeping on firm mattresses are more than twice as likely to feel back pain in bed than those on medium-firm mattresses. 
• Some 6.2% of U.S. adults use an air mattress or air bed as their primary bed, according to a survey by The Sleep Doctor. | Learn more
• U.S. adults who sleep on an air mattress or air bed are 12.6% more likely to rate their sleep as “above average.”

Statistics About Mattress Satisfaction and Safety

• On average, adults would rate their primary mattress as 4.1 stars out of 5. The average rating for a mattress less than 6 years old is 4.2 stars, compared to 3.6 stars for mattresses older than 6 years old, according to a survey by The Sleep Doctor. | Learn more

• When selecting a hotel room or place to sleep while traveling, 27.6% of U.S. adults consider the type of mattress in that room. But those adults average one hour more sleep than normal when traveling, and they are 26.2% more likely than average to rate their sleep as “excellent,” according to a survey by The Sleep Doctor. | Learn more
• On average, 990 people are injured and 340 people die each year in the United States as a result of a fire that started on a mattress or bedding.
• As a part of U.S. fire testing, mattress-surface materials are exposed to as many as 18 to 36 burning cigarettes to ensure they meet flammability standards.

Statistics About Mattress Hygiene

• A typical used mattress may have as many as 10 million dust mites inside. But these mites do not cause mattresses’ weight to double, contrary to a widely circulated statistic.
• 38.4% of adults make their bed every day, according to a survey by The Sleep Doctor. | Learn more 
• 15.8% of adults never make their bed.
• U.S. adults flip or rotate their mattress about every six months, or every 183 days, according to a survey by The Sleep Doctor. | Learn more
• 29.6% of adults never flip their mattress.

The History of Mattresses

• Law labels, or the “do not remove” tags on mattresses, date back to 1913. They originally were designed to regulate mattress material and hold mattresses to flammability standards. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have “tagging laws” on the books.
• Heinrich Westphal is typically credited with inventing the coil-spring, or innerspring, mattress. He patented the design in 1890. 
• Charles Yost is typically credited with inventing what we now know as memory foam in 1966. NASA had contracted him to build more comfortable, vibration-absorbent seating for planes.
• Dr. Neil Arnott is typically credited with inventing the water bed in 1832. He created it to help a patient who had been suffering from bed sores.