Global – October 31, 2026 -- Industrial fabrication consumed 657.4 million ounces of silver in 2025, down 3% from the 2024 record of 680.5 million ounces, according to the World Silver Survey 2026. Metals Focus forecasts a further decline of roughly 3% in 2026, to 639.6 million ounces.
Industrial use remains the largest broad component of silver demand. It accounted for well over half of the approximately 1.13 billion ounces of total demand in 2025, so shifts in industrial consumption can alter the wider supply-demand balance.
Solar thrifting drives the decline as installations keep growing
Photovoltaic demand reached a record 197.6 million ounces in 2024, about 29% of industrial silver demand, up from roughly 11% a decade earlier. The World Silver Survey 2026 attributes much of the 2025 reversal to changing silver use within solar manufacturing, not to weakness in electrification or electronics.
The Silver Institute says PV installations are more than ten times higher than a decade ago, while PV silver demand is only around three times higher. Cell makers have narrowed conductive lines, improved metallization and tested partial replacement with copper and other materials, a process known as silver thrifting. The survey expects the divergence to continue, with sector silver consumption falling even as installations rise.
No reliable universal figure exists for silver per solar panel, because cell technologies and loadings vary and change quickly. Silver demand per unit of solar capacity is the more useful metric, and silver intensity is falling.
Metals Focus expects North American gains to be outweighed by East Asia, South Asia and Europe
North American industrial demand is forecast to rise in 2026. Declines in East Asia, South Asia and Europe pull the global figure lower. Automotive use, grid investment and AI-related electronics remain supportive, but those gains are not expected to offset the contraction in photovoltaic demand.
Oxford Economics forecasts automotive silver demand at 94 million ounces by 2031
Oxford Economics, in research published by the Silver Institute, projects a 3.4% compound annual growth rate in global automotive silver demand from 2025 to 2031. Battery-electric vehicles use an estimated 25 to 50 grams of silver each, and EVs consume roughly 67% to 79% more silver than internal-combustion vehicles on average.
EVs are expected to overtake internal-combustion vehicles as the largest source of automotive silver demand by 2027, and to account for 59% of the sector by 2031. These are forecasts, and EV adoption rates, vehicle design and component-level silver use can all change.
Silver Institute research lacks loading data to size AI and data-centre demand
Oxford Economics estimates global IT power capacity rose from approximately 0.93 gigawatts in 2000 to nearly 50 gigawatts in 2025. Data centres need servers, networking equipment, switchgear, backup power and grid connections, many containing silver.
The Silver Institute's technology research explicitly notes the absence of precise silver-loading data for data centres. Any fixed percentage of global silver demand assigned to AI is therefore less robust than figures for automotive or photovoltaics, and the effect must be inferred from hardware and infrastructure growth rather than measured in ounces.