Barbados: Transport services (% of commercial service imports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2017, Barbados' transport services (% of commercial service imports) rose 0.25 percentage points on 2016 (from 15.88% to 16.12%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1987 to 2016), the average change was −0.86 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.21 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.3 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 13.34 percentage points in 1968 and the biggest yearly fall was 13.12 percentage points in 1986. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2008 to 2017 the straight-line trend is downward, about 1.11 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 73% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 10.76% for 2020. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2015 to 2017 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 1.02%, against 2.34% for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

Transport is the process of carriage of people and objects from one location to another as well as related supporting and auxiliary services. Also included are postal and courier services. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of service imports which are commercial services provided by non-residents to residents.

Limitations: Balance of payments statistics, the main source of information on international trade in services, have many weaknesses. Disaggregation of important components may be limited and varies considerably across countries. There are inconsistencies in the methods used to report items. And the recording of major flows as net items is common (for example, insurance transactions are often recorded as premiums less claims). These factors contribute to a downward bias in the value of the service trade reported in the balance of payments. Efforts are being made to improve the coverage, quality, and consistency of these data.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 51 values

Transport services (% of commercial service imports) in nearby economies

• Antigua and Barbuda — 21.26% (2025)
• Argentina — 20.04% (2025)
• Aruba — 14.77% (2023)
• Bahamas, The — 24.34% (2024)
• Belize — 34.6% (2025)
• Bolivia — 33.72% (2025)
• Brazil — 21.11% (2025)
• Chile — 36.05% (2025)
• Colombia — 24.67% (2025)
• Costa Rica

More private sector & trade data for Barbados

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 33.14% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$2.23 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$428 million (2025)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 87.11% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies outside region (% of total merchandise imports) — 5.7% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies in Latin America & the Caribbean (% of total merchandise imports) — 7.19% (2023)
• Merchandise imports from low- and middle-income economies in South Asia (% of total merchandise imports) — 0.52% (2023)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Barbados's transport services (% of commercial service imports)?

16.12% in 2017, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1967?

It is down 8.42 percentage points from 24.54% in 1967. The highest value was 60.11% in 1979 and the lowest 14.58% in 2013.

Is the latest change in transport services (% of commercial service imports) unusual for Barbados?

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TM.VAL.TRAN.ZS.WT, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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