Higher GDP countries tend to have lower manufacturing share of GDP.
Comparing Gdp worldbank constant usd with Manufacturing value added to gdp, per unit of GDP across 193 countries, 2011–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.93
- Holding size constant
- -0.82
- Countries compared
- 193
- Period
- 2011–2025
What might link these
Wealthier nations may shift toward services or high-tech sectors, reducing manufacturing's GDP share. A careful reader should note that correlation doesn't imply causation—other factors like industrial policy or data definitions could drive this pattern.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. The relationship could be influenced by how 'manufacturing value added' is measured across countries with different economic structures.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.