René Muschter
Research Expert covering Industry & Mobility
Lab-grown diamond industry - statistics & facts
Lab-grown diamonds are known by several different names, including synthetic diamonds, man-made diamonds, and cultured diamonds. They have the same physical properties of natural diamonds because they are created in a lab using technology that replicates the natural diamond growing process. Rather than taking billions of years to form like natural diamonds, lab-grown diamonds can be grown in one to four weeks depending on their size. The lab-grown diamond industry has been steadily growing over the past decade as the technology improves and more companies have become involved in their manufacture. The market value of lab-grown diamonds amounted to more than 27.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.
Lab-grown diamond production methods
The lab-grown diamond market share within the entire diamond market has been growing steadily in recent years, with the market share expected to amount to over 21 percent in 2025. There are two main methods for producing lab-grown diamonds: high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT), and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). By 2030, it is forecast that the market revenue of lab-grown diamonds produced with the CVD method will amount to 30.1 billion U.S. dollars.The HPHT process is less popular than diamonds produced with the CVD method however, because it typically produces yellow or brown diamonds of lower economic value.Price and ethical production
Compared to natural diamonds, lab-grown diamonds are in general less expensive. The retail price of one-carat lab-grown diamonds stood at some 855 U.S. dollars as of 2025. This was nearly a 76 percent decrease in the price when compared to 2018. In addition to being less expensive, lab-grown diamonds are considered by many to be a more environmentally and socially ethical alternative to natural diamonds. This is due to lab grown diamonds being made in a lab rather than requiring large amounts of earth to be moved and involving potentially problematic labor practices along the value chain. Some consumers consider this to be another appealing attribute of lab-grown diamonds.
