(as of June 18, 2010)

• Flexible packaging is a $26.4 billion industry in the United States.
  
  
• Flexible packaging is the second largest packaging segment in the U.S., garnering 18 percent of the U.S. $143 billion packaging market.
  
  
• The flexible packaging industry directly employs a little over 79 thousand people.
  
  
• Flexible packaging converters range from small manufacturing companies operating a single facility to large integrated corporations with up to 34 individual plant locations.
  
  
• The average flexible packaging company employs about 193 people and serves a wide array of markets.
  
  
• Exports account for about 5 percent of industry shipments.
  
  
• The largest market for flexible packaging is food (retail and institutional), accounting for about 56 percent of shipments.
  
  
• Other markets for flexible packaging include retail non-food at 12 percent; industrial applications at 9 percent; consumer products at 10 percent; institutional non-food at 5 percent; and medical and pharmaceutical at 8.