Are you a true doll lover? So much so that your significant other is complaining about how much “money you waste on dolls?” Well here’s some good news for you: it’s only pennies! How do we know? 
Well first, The NPD Group Inc, released a report on the Global Toy Industry this week, and the news was pretty good:
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, September 10, 2008 –Despite a slowdown in U.S. sales and rising competition from vertical segments such as video games, worldwide toy market sales topped $71.96 billion dollars in 2007, a 5 percent increase over the $68.5 billion generated in 2006, according to Global Toy Trends and Forecasts, the most recent report from leading market research company, The NPD Group. At the current pace, NPD expects worldwide toy sales to top $86.3 billion in 2010.
Global Toy Trends and Forecasts provides a detailed and granular look at the composition of the global toy market since 2004, including a country by country analysis by age and gender, as well as the opportunities that exist for the toy industry in other parts of the world and a trend forecast of what The NPD Group expects the industry to experience within the next few years.
According to the report, North America represents 33 percent of worldwide sales, followed by Europe at 30 percent and Asia at 24 percent.
Then, using the latest available US Dept of Commerce Industry Outlook, Dolls, as a category, represents approximately 13% of all US toys. So It looks to us as if the doll industry in the US is a pretty healthy $3.12 Billion Dollar Industry!
(US Sales 33% of 72 Billion worldwide = $24B; Doll sales 13% of US Toy Sales = $3.1 Billion)
So let’s say you spend $2000 dollars a year on dolls. That’s about a half of a thousandth of a percent! Pennies! And since I assume the only readers of The Doll Blog are doll lovers, I assume you love these numbers too!