Smart meter installations projected to reach 3.9bn globally by 2035, generating $46bn in annual revenue, according to Transforma Insights.

It estimates that global smart meters will grow from 2.1bn in 2025 to 3.9bn in 2035. Smart electricity metering will continue to dominate but with smart water metering increasingly important.

The research demonstrates that smart metering will continue to be one of the most significant IoT use cases.

Today, nearly 11% of all IoT connections globally are smart meters. By 2035, with te more rapid growth of other use cases that proportion will have declined slightly to 9%.

Electricity smart meters account for the majority, with 1.42bn connections (66%), compared with 306m gas smart meters (14%) and 414m water smart meters (19%) at the end of 2025. By 2035, the equivalent figures will be 2.4bn (61%), 586m (15%) and 908m (24%).

The total revenue set to be generated by smart metering globally was $23bn in 2025, a figure which will grow to $46bn in 2035.

The technologies of choice for connecting smart meters will evolve quite rapidly. Today there are a diverse array of technologies used to connect electricity meters including powerline communications and RF mesh. Over time this will gradually migrate towards the use of LPWA technologies, both cellular mMTC technologies, such as NB-IoT, and unlicensed technologies, predominantly LoRaWan.

Electricity dominates the smart metering space throughout the forecast period, accounting for over 60% of all meters. Of the 1.42bn electricity smart meters today, 1.27bin (89%) are residential, a figure which equates to a penetration of 55% of households globally. A lot of countries have ostensibly completed their smart meter deployments, notably many countries in the EU and China. In developing nations there is still much to be done. By 2035, the projected 2.1bn residential smart meters will equate to a global household penetration of 85%.

Smart gas metering is restricted to countries where piped natural gas (PNG) is used, most prominently in Europe. There were 306m gas meters in 2025 of which 95% were residential and the remaining 5% for commercial premises. Around 49% of gas households have smart meters today, a figure which is expected to rise to 76% in 2035. Without access to mains power, gas smart metering tends to favour using LPWA technologies such as NB-IoT and LoRaWan.

Water smart meters rollouts have been patchy due to varying levels of governmental focus, although with increasing pressure on water resources smart water metering numbers will grow faster than either electricity or gas over the period, with a CAGR of 8%. As with gas smart metering, water will also favour LPWA technologies.

The three reports (transformainsights.com/research/reports/?type=Forecast_Insight) cover the smart electricity, gas and water metering markets. Each provides a detailed definition of the sector, analysis of market development and profiles of the key vendors in the space.