Countries by Cotton Production 2024

Countries ranked by cotton production in 2024, measured in millions of 480-pound bales. India leads on 25.5 million bales, narrowly ahead of China on 24.6 million, with the United States third on 16.4 million.

The unit is worth translating, because it is a trade convention rather than a natural measure: one bale is 480 pounds, about 218 kilograms. India's 25.5 million bales therefore amount to roughly 5.6 million tonnes of cotton lint. The eight countries here produce 98.6 million bales in total, and India and China together account for 50.1 million of them — 50.8 percent, just over half.

The top two are close enough that the order changes between years and between sources. India generally grows cotton on far more land than China with lower yields per hectare, while China produces a comparable volume from a smaller area, so a season of poor weather in either country can flip the ranking.

Brazil's 14.4 million bales is the entry that has moved most over the past decade, and it now produces nearly as much as the United States. Brazil and Australia (5.1 million) also export a much higher share of what they grow than India or China, both of which have large domestic textile industries that consume most of the crop.

One measurement note: this counts cotton lint, the fibre itself, not seed cotton as harvested. Roughly a third of harvested weight is lint and the rest is seed, so figures quoted in tonnes of seed cotton are far larger and are not comparable with these.