Not much available info about annual sales of staples, but this article states that in 2012, total sales of handheld staplers was $80 million. With an average sales price of $20, that means four million staplers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/business/staplers-the-attachment-thats-still-making-noise.html?_r=0
IF each new stapler is sold with a box of staples (1000 count is typical) that means that over 4 billion staples are sold just for new staplers. To the extent that older staplers are periodically refilled and that electric staplers are not included in the $30 million sales figure, the total consumption of staples must be much higher than the 4 billion estimated above.
Aside from the obvious problem that everything here is a rough estimate, there is also the factor of customer inventory that means the number of staples sold and the number used don't match up. In other words, there are millions of people who have staples stuck away in a drawer somewhere that never see the light of day.
This reply only deals with staples for binding papers together, so excludes staples used by surgeons, electricians, roofers, cardboard box manufacturers, upholsterers, and other industrial users.
