Contents
- Consumer product recalls statistics: annual U.S. recall counts and affected units
- Consumer product recalls statistics: hazards and reported harm
- Consumer product recalls statistics: product categories and major recalls
- Consumer product recalls statistics: recall remedies and response measures
- Consumer product recalls statistics: recall speed, follow-up, and reporting
- Sources
Consumer product recalls statistics: annual U.S. recall counts and affected units
Consumer product recalls statistics depend on the period and counting method. CPSC’s fiscal-year performance report counts voluntary recalls negotiated and implemented. A separate analysis counts calendar-year CPSC recall announcements and excludes Product Safety Warnings and unilateral press releases. These figures describe related activity, but they are not a single interchangeable annual series. (CPSC FY 2024 Annual Performance Report; An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
| Reporting frame | Period | Recalls | Affected units |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPSC voluntary recalls negotiated and implemented | FY 2023 | 308 | 97 million |
| CPSC voluntary recalls negotiated and implemented | FY 2024 | 333 | 41 million |
| CPSC announcements in the independent analysis | Calendar 2024 | 305 | Not stated in this count |
The fiscal-year figures pair the number of voluntary recalls with the number of consumer product units involved. Between FY 2023 and FY 2024, the count of those recalls rose from 308 to 333, while the reported unit total was 97 million in FY 2023 and 41 million in FY 2024. These separate values do not establish why the unit totals differed. The independent calendar-year analysis counted 305 announcements for 2024 under its stated exclusions. It notes that some announcements were expansions or reannouncements, so its total should be read within that scope. (CPSC FY 2024 Annual Performance Report; An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
The independent report’s 10-year chart gives a longer calendar-year view. It counted 288 recalls in 2015, 332 in 2016, 280 in 2017, and 258 in 2018. These are announcement counts under that report’s approach, including its stated exclusions; they should not be combined with fiscal-year totals as though both sources formed one consistent series. (An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
A recall count records actions or announcements under a particular reporting frame; an affected-unit total describes products covered by a recall. Neither count alone says how many products were used, how many reached consumers, or how many were returned or repaired. CPSC’s fiscal-year report specifically labels its figures as voluntary recalls negotiated and implemented, while the independent report uses calendar-year announcement counts. Keeping those labels attached helps readers interpret the figures without treating distinct measures as equivalents. (CPSC FY 2024 Annual Performance Report; An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
Consumer product recalls statistics: hazards and reported harm
The 2024 analysis associated CPSC recall notices with more than 10,746 reported incidents of varying degrees. “Associated with” is the report’s framing: this is a total of incidents tied to the analyzed recalls, not a count of unique people or a measure of risk across all products. (An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
Fire and burn hazards were cited together in 140 recalls in the analysis, associated with 631 injuries and 3 fatalities. The report also counted recalls citing other hazards. Those counts refer to citations in notices, rather than mutually exclusive categories; one recall may address more than 1 risk. (An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
| Hazard cited in 2024 notices | Recalls |
|---|---|
| Fire and burn | 140 |
| Falls | 32 |
| Injury | 31 |
| Crash | 14 |
| Entrapment | 13 |
| Laceration | 13 |
These are recall counts citing each hazard, not injury totals. The analysis reports harm outcomes for the fire and burn grouping separately, while listing falls, injury, crash, entrapment, and laceration as frequently cited hazards. “Injury” here is a hazard label and should not be confused with the 631 injuries associated with fire and burn recalls. (An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
Consumer product recalls statistics: product categories and major recalls
Children’s products represented 94 of the recalls counted in the 2024 analysis. Within that category, 15 recalls involved suffocation risk. The report also describes 16 sleepwear recalls concerning burn hazards and failure to meet federal flammability regulations. These are specific recall counts and risk descriptions, not a measure of the prevalence of unsafe products in children’s markets. (An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
Motorized recreational vehicles, including ATVs, ROVs, and snowmobiles, were involved in 24 recalls in 2024. The category groups several vehicle types, and the reported total does not break the count down by type. (An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
Two large recalls illustrate why affected-unit counts need context. In the analysis’s “Ten Largest Recalls by Number of Units” table, the U.S. column lists 21,000,000 MGA Entertainment units and 15,500,000 Dynabook units. Those are U.S. counts, separate from the table’s Canada and total columns. (An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
The Dynabook AC power adapter recall involved 16.8 million total units. The analysis cites 679 reports of adapters overheating, catching fire, melting, or burning, including 43 reports of minor burn injuries. A separate example is the 2024 Fisher-Price Snuga infant swing recall: about 2.2 million swings were recalled after 5 deaths were reported, with suffocation risk identified. The source gives an approximate unit count for the swings and describes the deaths as reported. (An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024)
Consumer product recalls statistics: recall remedies and response measures
CPSC’s performance reports define its recall response measure as an average correction rate for consumer product recalls. The agency reported a 51% rate for FY 2024 against a 43% target. Its FY 2025 report gives a 44.5% actual rate against a 43% target. The FY 2024 report notes that an updated calculation method was approved during its midyear review, so the reported rates span a method change. The measure is not consumer awareness and does not represent the share of all recalled units that were corrected. (CPSC FY 2024 Annual Performance Report; FY 2025 Agency Performance Report)
A snapshot of CPSC’s recall dashboard, accessed November 12, 2026, listed remedy entries over its displayed 5-year period. Refunds accounted for 1,108 entries (54.5%), repairs for 537 (26.4%), and replacements for 345 (17.0%). Smaller displayed categories were dispose, with 23 entries (1.1%); no remedy available, with 12 (0.6%); and new instructions, with 8 (0.4%). (CPSC Recalls & Product Safety Warnings dashboard)
| Remedy shown on dashboard | Entries | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Refund | 1,108 | 54.5% |
| Repair | 537 | 26.4% |
| Replace | 345 | 17.0% |
| Dispose | 23 | 1.1% |
| No Remedy Available | 12 | 0.6% |
| New Instructions | 8 | 0.4% |
These figures are remedy entries, not necessarily distinct recalls. CPSC says remedies may change daily and that a recall with multiple remedies is counted under each remedy. Dashboard data update weekly, while remedy data may change daily; the values therefore describe the displayed snapshot rather than a permanent 5-year tally. (CPSC Recalls & Product Safety Warnings dashboard)
Consumer product recalls statistics: recall speed, follow-up, and reporting
CPSC’s 2024 congressional report says 166 of 333 recalls completed during calendar 2024 were under the Fast-Track program. For Fast-Track recalls that year, 98.08% were initiated within 20 days of a firm’s report to CPSC. The timing interval begins with the firm’s report and ends with recall initiation; it is not a measure of time from the first consumer incident or from when a product entered the market. (2024 Annual Report to the President and Congress)
Follow-up metrics cover other stages of the process. CPSC’s unique open rate for recall-announcement email subscribers was 28% in FY 2024 and 24.4% in FY 2025. The FY 2025 target was 28%. These are email open rates, not estimates of how many owners saw a recall notice or acted on it. (CPSC FY 2024 Annual Performance Report; FY 2025 Agency Performance Report)
The congressional report also says CPSC’s eSAFE team made more than 56,000 online product-listing takedown requests in 2024 for banned or previously recalled products. Those requests resulted in the removal of more than 58,000 consumer product units from eCommerce. The request count and unit-removal count describe related enforcement activity, but use different units of measurement. (2024 Annual Report to the President and Congress)
A GAO review found a reporting-compliance issue in a defined earlier period: among firms undertaking recalls closed between February 2016 and May 2020, 61% submitted required monthly progress reports more than 75% of the time. This result is specific to those closed recalls and the report-submission threshold; it is not a current compliance estimate. (GAO, Consumer Product Safety Commission: Actions Needed to Improve Processes for Addressing Product Defect Cases)
A 2023 recall-effectiveness study received effectiveness data for a subset of 217 recall events featuring 89 products, drawn from CPSC announcements from January 2001 through December 2013. The study says the remaining 121 firms claimed confidentiality under section 6(a) of the CPSA. It identifies possible sample-selection bias, which limits how broadly the effectiveness data can be generalized. These figures describe the study’s data availability and sample, rather than the effectiveness of recalls as a whole. (Product recall effectiveness and consumers’ participation in corrective actions)
Sources
- FY 2025 Agency Performance Report
- FY 2024 Annual Performance Report
- Recalls & Product Safety Warnings
- An Analysis of Consumer Product Recalls in 2024
- 2024 Annual Report to the President and Congress
- Consumer Product Safety Commission: Actions Needed to Improve Processes for Addressing Product Defect Cases
- Product recall effectiveness and consumers’ participation in corrective actions