The trade-fair index in numbers
What this index actually contains, measured on 2026-11-08. Every figure below is computed from the published dataset — not estimated, not rounded up, and not a marketing claim about "the world's fairs".
Coverage, stated plainly
The index runs 2026-01-06 to 2028-10-18. It is a forward-looking calendar: a fair appears when a source publishes its next edition, so near-term months are denser than distant ones. 869 of the 1,323 entries fall in 2026, which is a fact about publication lead times, not about how many fairs exist.
78 entries are confirmed against the organiser's own site; 1245 are listed, meaning a single independent source published the dates and we have not yet confirmed them with the organiser. Both are labelled on the page and in the CSV. This is the honest state of the index, and it is why the "official source" column is empty for 1245 rows.
By industry
| Industry | Fairs | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Unclassified | 313 | 23.7% |
| Food & Beverage | 131 | 9.9% |
| Medical & Pharma | 101 | 7.6% |
| Construction & Building | 90 | 6.8% |
| Energy & Environment | 89 | 6.7% |
| Logistics & Transport | 76 | 5.7% |
| Textiles & Apparel | 73 | 5.5% |
| Machinery & Industrial | 70 | 5.3% |
| Automotive | 67 | 5.1% |
| Electronics | 61 | 4.6% |
| ICT & Software | 52 | 3.9% |
| Beauty & Cosmetics | 45 | 3.4% |
| Packaging & Print | 39 | 2.9% |
| Furniture & Interiors | 27 | 2.0% |
| Jewellery & Watches | 21 | 1.6% |
| Toys & Baby | 20 | 1.5% |
| Lighting | 18 | 1.4% |
| Gifts & Retail | 17 | 1.3% |
| Pets | 13 | 1.0% |
The venues that host the most
| Venue | Fairs | City |
|---|---|---|
| National Exhibition Centre | 57 | Birmingham |
| Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre | 56 | Hong Kong |
| Messe München | 53 | Munich |
| Tokyo International Exhibition Center (Tokyo Big Sight) | 52 | Tokyo |
| Fiera Milano (Rho) | 51 | Milan |
| China Import & Export Fair Complex (Pazhou) | 50 | Guangzhou |
| BolognaFiere | 48 | Bologna |
| Fira Barcelona Gran Via | 45 | Barcelona |
| Messe Berlin | 43 | Berlin |
| Dubai World Trade Centre (Dubai Exhibition Centre) | 41 | Dubai |
| Marina Bay Sands | 38 | Singapore |
| Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center | 36 | Shenzhen |
By country
| Country | Fairs |
|---|---|
| China | 248 |
| Germany | 237 |
| United Kingdom | 123 |
| India | 103 |
| Italy | 101 |
| France | 65 |
| Japan | 61 |
| Singapore | 61 |
| UAE | 61 |
| Brazil | 54 |
| Thailand | 53 |
| Turkey | 53 |
| Netherlands | 51 |
| Spain | 45 |
| USA | 4 |
| Malaysia | 1 |
| Saudi Arabia | 1 |
| Taiwan | 1 |
Annual, biennial, and the rest
20 fairs in the index carry editions in more than one year, which is what a repeat calendar looks like before it is filled in: 1244 unverified, 78 confirmed, 1 cancelled. Recurrence is measured from the slug's edition suffix, so a fair that changed its name between editions is counted twice — the number is a floor, not a ceiling.
The 2027 calendar so far
437 fairs in this index already publish a 2027 date. Where those dates land — by month, by week, and the days where several fairs open at once — is measured on the 2027 trade-fair calendar, with the CSV behind it.
Take the data
The whole index is a free CSV — 1,323 rows, one per dated fair, with venue, city, country, industry, official source and verification status. Download the CSV →
Free to use with attribution. A live change feed — what moved, what was added, what was cancelled — is the paid product: see the API.
How to cite this
ExpoArena, "The trade-fair index in numbers", 2026-11-08. https://expoarena.org/data/trade-fair-index
Measured 2026-11-08. Numbers change as editions are published — cite the date with the figure.