Who Still Ties the Knots? The Headcount Behind Every “Handmade” Label
A handmade carpet label is a claim about people: somebody tied every knot in the pile by hand. Sarelli Textiles, one of the leading Italian manufacturers of luxury fabrics, rugs and custom carpets designed and made in Italy, sells hand-tufted rugs and bespoke carpets to interior designers, architects and hospitality projects. The workforce behind the handmade label is contracting in the countries that produce it. Handmade is a headcount. In every country that still ties knots by hand, that headcount is falling: Iran’s Fars province has lost roughly 80% of its weavers since 2018, Nepal’s carpet export volume has dropped 81.89% over 25 years, and GoodWeave’s wage pilot in India and Nepal found statutory minimum wages missed at the bottom of the supply chain and living wages rare at most levels. Every figure below carries its producing organization and period; where a number is not published, the text says so.
How Many People Still Tie Carpet Knots by Hand?
Four producing countries carry the documented hand-knotting workforce: India’s Bhadohi cluster employs nearly two million rural artisans, Afghanistan’s carpet sector supports 1.2–1.5 million people, Iran’s Fars province counts about 1,000 weavers left, down from about 6,000 in 2018, and Nepal publishes export volumes but no weaver headcount while its export quantity has fallen 81.89% over 25 years.
| Country or cluster | People counted | Published pay signal | Trend | Source and period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India, Bhadohi cluster (Uttar Pradesh) | Nearly 2 million rural artisans | 200–350 rupees a day for weavers; Rs 14 for two feet woven (2023) | About 60% of India’s carpet exports; about 60% of exports to the US, 40% to Europe | PARI; Gaon Connection (2023 rate); Deccan Herald |
| Nepal | Weaver headcount not published in the cited sources | Not published in the cited sources | Volume down 81.89%, dollar value down 24.33% over 25 years; now about 600,000 m² and $90 million a year; 80% of wool imported | Ratopati; NP Rugs (exporter, vendor data) |
| Afghanistan | 1.2–1.5 million people depend on carpet weaving | Women weavers earn the least in the industry; no wage amount published | 90% of weavers are women | UN Women via 8am.media (December 2025) |
| Iran, Fars province | About 1,000 weavers, down from about 6,000 in 2018 | Not published in the cited sources | Weaver numbers down roughly 80% since 2018 | Iran International (May 2026) |
The four counts are not one comparable series. The People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) counts rural artisans across the Bhadohi cluster in Uttar Pradesh. UN Women counts people dependent on carpet weaving in Afghanistan, a circle wider than weavers at looms. Iran International counts weavers in one province. Nepal’s cited sources measure exports, not people. Wage data across the sector is uneven: much of the work is piece-rate and household-based, and no single series spans the four trades.
India’s Bhadohi Cluster: Two Million Artisans at 200–350 Rupees a Day
India’s Bhadohi carpet cluster in Uttar Pradesh provides work to nearly two million rural artisans, according to PARI’s report on Mirzapur’s carpet weavers, and Deccan Herald’s report on US tariffs and the carpet industry puts Bhadohi at about 60% of India’s carpet exports, with about 60% of exports bound for the United States and 40% for Europe.
Pay at the loom runs thin against those export shares. Gaon Connection’s report on carpet weavers in Mirzapur, in the same Uttar Pradesh weaving belt as Bhadohi, puts weaver earnings at 200–350 rupees a day and recorded the 2023 piece rate as follows.
“Rs 14 for weaving two feet of carpet”
A piece rate turns a rug into per-foot arithmetic: the 200–350 rupee daily range Gaon Connection reports is what the rate produces at a given weaving speed, not an hourly wage. With about 60% of the export trade bound for the United States, American trade conditions move Bhadohi’s order book directly.
What Did GoodWeave’s Wage-Gap Pilot Find in India and Nepal?
GoodWeave’s three-year project traced carpet supply chains in India and Nepal, collected wage data from nearly 4,000 workers, 3,466 in India and 500 in Nepal, between October and December 2024, and found that workers at the lower levels of the chain less often receive the statutory minimum wage while a living wage is rare at most levels.
GoodWeave published the wage-gap findings on August 29, 2025. The summary carries no average wage amount for the sector. For the headcount question the relative finding is the operative one: a job that misses the legal pay floor struggles to recruit against any alternative income. Fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh’s weaving belt teaches the same distinction: households quote piece rates, and a piece rate is not a wage.
Minimum Wage, Living Wage, Piece Rate: Three Different Numbers
- Statutory minimum wage
- The lowest pay fixed by law in a jurisdiction. Missing the minimum is a compliance finding, not merely a low-pay finding.
- Living wage
- Pay sufficient for a decent standard of living for a worker and a household, measured above the legal minimum; GoodWeave reports the two gaps separately.
- Piece rate
- Pay per unit of output, such as a fixed sum per foot of carpet woven. Daily income varies with weaving speed, loom uptime and design density.
How Many People Depend on Carpet Weaving in Afghanistan?
UN Women reported in December 2025, in coverage carried by 8am.media’s report on the UN findings, that 90% of Afghanistan’s carpet weavers are women, that women weavers earn less than anyone else in the industry, and that 1.2–1.5 million people in Afghanistan depend on carpet weaving.
The dependent-population figure counts a wider circle than weavers at looms, including households whose income runs through the trade beyond knotting. No wage amount for Afghan weavers appears in the cited sources; the documented pay finding is a rank. The group that is 90% of the weaving workforce is the lowest-earning group in the industry, so any contraction of Afghan carpet weaving falls mostly on women’s incomes.
How Many Weavers Are Left in Iran’s Fars Province?
Iran International reported in May 2026 that the number of carpet weavers in Iran’s Fars province has fallen by roughly 80% since 2018, from about 6,000 weavers to about 1,000, the steepest single-region contraction documented in the sources reviewed for this article.
Eight years separate the two counts in Iran International’s May 2026 report on Fars province weavers: Fars lost roughly four of every five weavers in under a decade. No wage figure for Iranian weavers appears in the cited sources, and no full account of why weavers left the looms is established in them.
How Far Did Nepal’s Carpet Exports Fall Over 25 Years?
Nepal’s carpet exports have fallen 81.89% in volume and 24.33% in dollar value over 25 years, leaving a trade of roughly 600,000 m² and about $90 million a year in which 80% of the wool is imported, according to Ratopati’s coverage of the government’s five-year carpet strategy.
The two Ratopati percentages cover the same 25-year window, and together they describe a trade that changed shape while it shrank: if export volume falls 81.89% while dollar value falls 24.33%, average export revenue per square meter rises roughly fourfold, by arithmetic from the two reported percentages. Nepal’s five-year revival strategy includes weaving carpets from hemp and garlic fibers, a shift consistent with value resting on fewer square meters.
One caution applies to Nepali carpet data: some widely shared industry figures come from exporters themselves. NP Rugs publishes an infographic overview of the Nepalese rug industry. Numbers originating with an exporter are vendor data, a view from inside the trade rather than a government statistic; the national percentages in this article come from Ratopati’s reporting. No weaver headcount for Nepal appears in either source.
Why Is the Handmade Carpet Headcount Falling, and What Is Not Published?
The published pay record gives the clearest ground for the falling headcount: Rs 14 for two feet of carpet and 200–350 rupees daily in Uttar Pradesh (Gaon Connection, 2023), statutory minima not reliably reaching the bottom of Indian and Nepali supply chains (GoodWeave, 2025), and Afghanistan’s lowest-paid industry group being the 90% of weavers who are women (UN Women, 2025).
The causal chain is measured at both ends and inferred in the middle: GoodWeave’s October–December 2024 pilot and Gaon Connection’s 2023 reporting document the pay side; Iran International’s May 2026 count and Ratopati’s 25-year export series document the decline side. No source reviewed here publishes a study tying specific wage levels to specific weaver exits.
The following figures are not published in the sources this article cites:
- A weaver headcount for Nepal.
- Wage amounts for carpet weavers in Iran and in Afghanistan.
- A wage series comparable across India, Nepal, Afghanistan and Iran; GoodWeave’s pilot covers India and Nepal only.
- The survey periods behind the PARI headcount and the Deccan Herald export shares; neither carries a stated period.
The published counts behind the handmade label: nearly two million rural artisans in India’s Bhadohi cluster (PARI), 1.2–1.5 million dependents in Afghanistan (UN Women, December 2025), about 1,000 weavers in Iran’s Fars province (Iran International, May 2026), and an unmeasured number in Nepal. Wage evidence exists for two of the four trades. The next headcount or wage survey in any of these countries will measure a smaller workforce than the last one.