Construction and home improvement statistics: our data library

What is in the data library?

Seven statistics pages, each built around the questions writers and homeowners ask about building work. Two of them rest on our own analysis of public data. The ladder and stair injury statistics come from our own run of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's injury sample, with a confidence interval for every estimate. The material weight and density table compiles supplier, maker and highway-study figures row by row, each with its source.

The other five bring the main official series together on one page. The building material price index tracks producer prices for lumber, drywall, concrete, insulation and roofing in the US, UK and EU. The construction waste statistics cover debris by material and what happens to it. The home improvement statistics cover spending, the DIY share and project counts. The home insulation statistics set US and English survey results side by side, and the concrete and cement statistics cover production, CO2 and recycling.

Three more resources are made for reuse rather than reading. The printable construction charts put bag yields, lumber sizes, trowel notches, roof pitch factors and stair limits on one sheet each. The free construction diagrams show stair parts, deck framing, roof pitch and post footings. The embeddable calculator widgets let you put a calculator on your own site with a credit link.

All statistics pages and resources

Which figures do people cite most?

These are the headline figures from each page, in the form most articles need them. Each links to the page with the context, the interval or range, and the source.

• An estimated 189,731 people were treated in US emergency departments for injuries involving ladders in 2025, and 1,310,287 for stairs or steps. See the NEISS injury estimates with intervals.
• US producer prices for inputs to residential construction were 55.8% higher in September 2026 than in January 2020 (BLS, preliminary). See the monthly price tracker.
• The US generated 600 million tons of construction and demolition debris in 2018, EPA's latest estimate. See the debris by material and destination.
• DIY made up a record-low 15.9% of US homeowner improvement spending in 2023 (Harvard JCHS). See the spending and project counts.
• A cubic yard of gravel, crushed stone or sand weighs 1.22–2.16 short tons per yd3 depending on the stone (Vulcan Materials). See the full density table.
• About 20% of US homes were reported poorly insulated or not insulated in 2024 (EIA RECS, preliminary). See the US and England insulation survey results.
• The US used an estimated 110 million metric tons of cement in 2025 (USGS). See the cement, ready-mix and aggregates series.

How is the data built?

Every number on these pages comes from a fact file that records the publisher, the document, the page or table it came from and the date it was read. Nothing is typed in from memory, and nothing is estimated where a source is missing. When we cannot find a figure we can cite, the page says so instead of filling the gap.

Most figures come straight from government statistics, standards, trade associations or maker data sheets. Where we did our own analysis, the page explains each step. The injury estimates, for example, come from the public CPSC sample files, coded and weighted by us, and checked against CPSC's own published totals. Each page has a 'How we built this data' section covering sources, method and limits. The general rules are set out in our calculation methodology.

We did not test or measure any material ourselves. Where two sources disagree, we give both figures. Where data is more than about a decade old, we say it is the latest of its kind.

Can I reuse these statistics?

Yes. The tables, charts, CSV downloads and diagrams are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You can copy, adapt and republish them, including commercially, as long as you credit BuildersCalcs and link to the page the figure came from.

Each statistics page has a citation box at the end that copies a ready-made credit line. Please keep the year, the place and what the figure measures with any number you quote, and name the original publisher too: the agency or association behind the data deserves the credit for collecting it. Our part is the analysis, the compilation and the presentation.

How often is the data updated?

Each page is refreshed when its main source publishes new data. The injury figures change when CPSC releases a new year of its sample, usually in spring. The price tracker follows the monthly producer price releases. Cement and aggregates follow the USGS summaries each January. Insulation follows new releases of the US and English housing surveys. The date at the top of each page shows when it was last updated, and older figures stay in the downloads so you can trace a series back.