Baby in an ivory knitted romper and beanie lying on a knit blanket by 3 Little Crowns

Australia's Babywear Market by the Numbers: Market Size, Spending, Prices & Trade

Australia's market for baby and children's clothing is worth billions of dollars, and the most recent figures show it holding steady.

Childrenswear value grew modestly over the past year, clothing prices are climbing faster than general inflation, and imports of cotton babywear have levelled off after a 2022 peak. Meanwhile, close to 300,000 babies are born in Australia each year, keeping a fresh stream of newborns arriving into the category.

Here is a closer look at the numbers behind the market: how large it is, what Australians are spending on clothing, where prices are heading, and how much babywear crosses the border each year.

Key Highlights

  • Australia's childrenswear market reached A$2.8 billion in 2025, up 2% in value year on year, according to Euromonitor.

  • A separate commercial estimate values the country's baby apparel market specifically at US$1.24 billion in 2025, with forecast annual growth of 5.71% through 2031.

  • Imports of knitted or crocheted cotton baby garments peaked at US$181.1 million in 2022 and have since settled at around US$143 million in both 2023 and 2024.

  • Australia imported roughly 5.39 million kilograms of cotton baby garments in 2024, up from 5.11 million kilograms in 2023.

  • Clothing and footwear spending rose 1.6% in July 2026, the strongest monthly increase among the nine major spending categories, after falling 2.2% in April.

  • Clothing and footwear prices were 4.9% higher year on year in July 2026, above the 3.5% rise in overall inflation.

  • Prices for garments for infants and children rose 1.9% in the June quarter of 2025.

  • Australia registered 292,318 births in 2024, up slightly on 2023 but still below the 2018 peak of 315,147.

Australia's Baby and Children's Clothing Market Is Worth Billions

How big the market looks depends on where the line is drawn.

Euromonitor puts the broader Australian childrenswear market at A$2.8 billion in 2025, a 2% rise in value over the year, and points to affordability and durability as key considerations for buyers. That figure runs from babies through to older children, so it captures the wider category that baby-clothing brands sit within rather than babywear on its own.

It is also the closest thing to a single, rounded measure of the space. Its steady 2% climb suggests a market growing at a gentle pace rather than expanding or contracting sharply.

A narrower, baby-specific estimate comes from TechSci Research, which values the Australian baby apparel market at US$1.24 billion in 2025 and forecasts annual growth of 5.71% between 2026 and 2031. That projected pace is faster than the 2% recorded for childrenswear as a whole, though the two come from different sources and are built on different foundations.

They sit in different currencies and use different age definitions, so they cannot be lined up against each other directly. What they agree on is the order of magnitude: whether measured broadly or narrowly, Australian baby and children's clothing is a market in the billions of dollars, and both readings point upward.

Babywear Imports Have Settled Below Their 2022 Peak

Trade data gives a directly measurable read on the babywear entering Australia.

Imports of knitted or crocheted cotton baby garments climbed sharply through 2021 and 2022, then dropped back in 2023 and have held at that lower level since.

Year

Import value (US$)

Volume (kg)

2020

129.4 million

5.14 million

2021

166.4 million

6.29 million

2022

181.1 million

6.45 million

2023

143.0 million

5.11 million

2024

143.4 million

5.39 million

Both value and volume peaked in 2022, when imports reached US$181.1 million and 6.45 million kilograms. Value then fell about 21% into 2023 and has stayed close to US$143 million across the two most recent years, while the weight of clothing imported ticked back up from 5.11 to 5.39 million kilograms between 2023 and 2024.

The result is a market that expanded quickly in the early 2020s before easing to a steadier, lower plateau. These figures cover only knitted or crocheted cotton items, one slice of total babywear imports, but they follow the same product type consistently from year to year, which makes the trend a reliable one to track.

Australian Clothing Spending Remains Active but Uneven

Household spending on clothing swings from month to month.

In July 2026, clothing and footwear posted the largest monthly increase of any of the nine major categories tracked by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, rising 1.6% and edging ahead of recreation and culture at 1.5%, miscellaneous goods and services at 1.3%, and total household spending at 1.1%. On that reading, apparel was the standout category of the month.

Only a few months earlier, though, the same category had fallen 2.2% in April, so July's strength followed a decline rather than extending a run of gains.

That swing, from one of the weaker categories to the strongest inside a single quarter, marks clothing as one of the more changeable lines in the household budget. The measure covers all clothing and footwear rather than babywear alone, so it reflects the wider apparel market that baby clothing forms part of.

Clothing Prices Are Rising Faster Than General Inflation

Prices have moved more steadily upward than spending.

Clothing and footwear inflation ran at 4.9% year on year in July 2026, and 2.6% for that month alone, well above the 3.5% rise in Australia's overall Consumer Price Index across the same period. Apparel, in other words, has been adding to household costs a little faster than prices in general.

For a closer read on children's clothing, the ABS keeps a dedicated measure for garments for infants and children, the most directly relevant official price signal for the category.

Prices in that class rose 1.9% in the June quarter of 2025, a more contained increase than the headline apparel figure, while footwear for infants and children slipped 0.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis over the same quarter.

Both of these measures group babies' clothing with clothing for older children, so neither isolates newborn wear, but together they show children's apparel prices rising, if more gently than the broader clothing basket.

Australia Registers Around 300,000 Births a Year

Australia registered 292,318 births in 2024, up slightly from 286,998 in 2023 but still below the 315,147 recorded at the 2018 peak.

The figure gives a sense of how many new arrivals enter the market each year, sitting behind the market data as context rather than as a measure of demand.

What the Data Shows

Put together, the numbers describe a substantial Australian babywear and childrenswear market that is holding its value.

The category is worth billions of dollars, whether measured as childrenswear at A$2.8 billion or baby apparel at US$1.24 billion, and both readings grew over the past year. Imports of cotton baby garments have settled below their 2022 high but stayed steady across 2023 and 2024.

Clothing spending is strong but volatile, leading all categories in one month after falling in another, and prices are climbing faster than inflation, with children's apparel rising more gently than the wider clothing basket.

Each of these figures moves on its own timeline, and the data doesn't show one causing another. What it does show is a market of real scale and broadly stable value, with close to 300,000 new arrivals joining it every year, and enough movement across spending, prices, and trade to be worth watching from one release to the next.

Sources

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