Cotton's share of world textile fibre consumption is falling and now equals less than 45%, down about five percentage points since 1986 when cotton's share was 50%. While cotton remains the single most important textile fibre in the world, the consumption of chemical fibre is rising faster than cotton, especially in developing countries and the former USSR. Total textile fibre consumption rose from 15 million tons in 1960 to 38 million in 1989, for an average rate of growth of 3.19% per year. The fastest growth in total fibre consumption occurred in industrial countries, with growth of 6.4% per year, and the slowest increase occurred in Eastern Europe and the USSR, 2.5% per year. Over the same thirty-year period, cotton consumption alone rose from 10 million tons to 19 million, for an average annual rate of growth of 2%, and cotton's share of world fibre consumption dropped from 68% to 49%.