Ikea redoubles DEI efforts, will open 10 US stores this year

“We ended DEI in America,” President Trump declared in his State of the Union address on February 24, but if that’s the case, Ikea didn’t get the memo.

In its 2025 Annual Summary released a week before the address, Ikea US was unabashed about its DEI efforts.

“We believe that fairness, belonging, and respect are essential to our culture and our success,” the report stated. “Guided by our values, we continue to embed inclusive practices across the business as a fundamental way of working—strengthening our co-workers, our communities, and our performance.”

The company noted that Ikea US closed 2025 with a pay-parity difference of just 0.14%, an all-time low for the company; in 2024, men had earned an average of 1.07% more than women.

While 65% fewer Fortune 500 companies participated in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index than had last year, Ikea noted in its report that it earned a perfect score of 100%.

Ikea US also announced that it would build 10 new stores in the US this year, including in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Last year, it opened 14 new locations, including two small-format stores in Arcadia, California, and San Marcos, Texas.

A small-format Ikea that opened in February in Huntsville, Alabama, is 46,000 square feet—about one-sixth the size of a typical Ikea. Nonetheless, an Axios reporter visiting the store admitted he still got lost.