Nearly 9 million robots in the world in 2008 (8.6 million exactly).
That’s according to the official report by IEEE Spectrum using 2009 data from World Robotics.
Of the 8.6 million, there are 7.3 million service robots (RobotShop’s core business), that’s 85 %, and 1.3 million industrial robots.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/blog/show/nearly-9-million-robots-in-the-world