Ruby and sapphire are extremely popular gemstones. Virtually every jewelry store that features colored gemstones in jewelry will have a generous portion of their display dedicated to ruby and sapphire items. Ruby is the most popular red gemstone, and sapphire is the most popular blue gemstone.

The pie chart on this page shows the share of colored stone imports on a dollar-value basis that went to the categories of sapphire, ruby, emerald, and all other gemstone varieties during the 2015 calendar year. It shows that sapphire and ruby were the second and third most imported colored stones during that year. A total of $464 million worth of sapphire was imported, and a total of $149 million worth of ruby was imported.

Although the pie chart does not include domestic colored stone production, it can be considered as nearly complete. The United States Geological Survey estimates that the value of the total domestic production of colored stones of all kinds in the United States during calendar year 2015 was only $8.5 million.