25+ Stats About Mattresses

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A good mattress improves sleep, allowing us to revive and refresh ourselves for the coming day. And old mattresses can contribute to health problems, such as poor sleep and structural pain. 

But how do you know if your mattress is good or too old? As mattresses age, parts wear out and grooves may appear, which may make the mattress less comfortable. Mattress construction can be a factor, as different types of mattresses react in different ways. 

According to mattress industry statistics, many people are still replacing their mattresses at various times in mattresses’ life cycle. Here’s a deeper look at those stats and additional facts about mattresses.

• 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.

• 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.

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• 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.”

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

About The Author

LA Bourgeois

Contributing Writer

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LA Bourgeois delights readers and empowers them to create a joyful existence, which means getting quality sleep. Her freelance writing can be found in publications such as Psychology Today, Out Front Magazine, and MountainXpress. She shares her home with her wife, their rescue chihuahua/blue heeler, linear yards of books, and bushel baskets of yarn for her knitting.

• POSITION: Stomach Sleeper
• TEMPERATURE: Hot Sleeper
• CHRONOTYPE: Bear

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