Market research company Euromonitor International released new global tissue and hygiene industry data. According to the latest research, the global market for tissue and hygiene products totalled $165 billion U.S. dollars.

The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s largest growing retail tissue and hygiene market with $56.2 billion in sales. China leads the region with $36.2 billion and Japan falls in second with $8.1 billion dollars in sales. While store-based retail accounts for majority of the tissue and disposable hygiene sales in the region, online retail is gaining traction. For example, in China, 26% of all diapers were sold online in 2015, compared to 5% five years ago.

Overall, many tissue and hygiene companies struggled in 2015, as currency devaluation and economic difficulties in many markets put industry revenues and profit margins under heavy pressure. Increases in import and production costs affected companies relying on imported raw materials and goods. But while many international players struggled to drive sales and revenues in these conditions, domestic manufacturers capitalized on them, increasing their branded and private label product sales. In Russia, for instance, private label nearly doubled its share of retail tissue sales from 2013 to 2015.

Within tissue and hygiene, one of the categories that saw the most growth was adult incontinence, with $7.2 billion in sales in 2015. It is forecasted a 7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2020.

According to the Global Head of Tissue and Hygiene Research at Euromonitor, Svetlana Uduslivaia, “The adult incontinence category continues to grow due to consumer education, better understanding of incontinence and better consumer awareness of products available. Additionally, the category is driven by expanding product assortment in stores and online channels, including specialized adult incontinence online-only retailers and innovation that sees increasing product segmentation and formats to address various types of adult incontinence.”