While it is very difficult to judge the global requirement of the use of fillers in polymer, a recent study surmised that it could be about 15 million tons, constituting almost 5% of the total demand of polymeric materials. Elastomers account for about 50% of the demand and plastics account for 33%. The remaining 17% would be used in thermosets. Europe and NAFTA regions account for 7.5 million tons - half of the total global requirement.

Carbon black and calcium carbonate account for majority of the fillers. The high performance fillers market is less than 1 million tons - less than 6% of the total demand.
In fillers for thermoplastics, PVC and polypropylene (PP) continue to dominate the market. About 50% of the fillers used in thermoplastics go into PVC and 25% into PP. The most widely used filler remains natural calcium carbonate.
 However, one of the fastest growing areas, particularly in the United States, is the use of wood fiber composites based on PVC and polyolefins.
 Flame retardant fillers, such as aluminum hydroxide are also increasingly important, particularly in cable applications.
Other trends include the growing use of filler surface treatment methods, with fatty acids being the most prevalent. There is also increasing use of functionalized polymers, such as maleinized polypropylene. Another high performance filler that is growing exceptionally well is nano filler particularly nano clay and nano carbon tubes.

It is estimated that the filler usage is increasing because of cost consideration. However, quality enhancement of the finished products would exert pressures on their demand, leading to an increasing growth of high performance fillers.
(Based on research paper by Prof. Roger Rothon at the recent conference on High performance Fillers held at Cologne, Germany)