Nepal: Textiles and clothing (% of value added in manufacturing)

Key figures

Over five years it is up 0.000115 percentage points from 6.51% in 2017. Since 1986 it is down 13.09 percentage points from 19.6% in 1986. The World Bank has no value for 17 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

In 2022, Nepal's textiles and clothing (% of value added in manufacturing) fell 0 percentage points on 2021 (from 6.51% to 6.51%).

Across the 11 yearly changes before that (1987 to 2021), the average change was +2.7 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.53 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.8 standard deviations below 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 9.86 percentage points in 1994 and the biggest yearly fall was 0.03 percentage points in 2021. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

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

How it compares

In 2022, Nepal had the 8th highest value of the 17 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Nepal in the 2022 ranking

• Indonesia — 5th of 17: 10.77%
• Mali — 6th of 17: 8.51%
• Tanzania — 7th of 17: 6.67%
• Belarus — 9th of 17: 4.96%
• Côte d'Ivoire — 10th of 17: 3.38%
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 11th of 17: 2.85%

What this measures

Textiles and clothing refers to industries in ISIC (rev. 3) divisions 17-19 and includes manufacturing of textiles, apparel, dyeing of fur, and tanning of leather. Value added is the contribution to the economy by a producer or an industry or an institutional sector, which is estimated by the total value of output produced and deducting the total value of intermediate consumption of goods and services used to produce that output. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of value added in manufacturing which is the contribution to the economy by the manufacturing sector (ISIC Rev. 3 major division D).

Limitations: In establishing classifications systems compilers must define both the types of activities to be described and the units whose activities are to be reported. There are many possibilities, and the choices affect how the statistics can be interpreted and how useful they are in analyzing economic behavior. The ISIC emphasizes commonalities in the production process and is explicitly not intended to measure outputs (for which there is a newly developed Central Product Classification). Nevertheless, the ISIC views an activity as defined by "a process resulting in a homogeneous set of products."

All 20 values

Textiles and clothing (% of value added in manufacturing) in nearby economies

• Bangladesh — 56.62% (2020)
• India — 7.37% (2023)
• Sri Lanka — 37.74% (2022)

More economic policy & debt data for Nepal

• Total reserves, including gold (current US$) — US$21.1 billion (2025)
• Total reserves, excluding gold (current US$) — US$19.98 billion (2025)
• Services, value added (current US$) — US$24.73 billion (2025)
• Services, value added (current LCU) — 3.37 trillion (2025)
• Services, value added (% of GDP) — 54.37% (2025)
• Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices (current US$) — US$40.02 billion (2025)
• Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices (current LCU) — 5.45 trillion (2025)
• GDP (current US$) — US$45.49 billion (2025)
• GDP (current LCU) — 6.2 trillion (2025)
• GDP (constant 2015 US$) — US$36.54 billion (2025)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Nepal's textiles and clothing (% of value added in manufacturing)?

6.51% in 2022, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1986?

It is down 13.09 percentage points from 19.6% in 1986. The highest value was 43.79% in 1994 and the lowest 5.41% in 2011.

How does Nepal rank?

8th highest of 17 economies with data for 2022.

Is the latest change in textiles and clothing (% of value added in manufacturing) unusual for Nepal?

In 2022, Nepal's textiles and clothing (% of value added in manufacturing) fell 0 percentage points on 2021 (from 6.51% to 6.51%). Across the 11 yearly changes before that (1987 to 2021), the average change was +2.7 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.53 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.8 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator NV.MNF.TXTL.ZS.UN, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) 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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