Pacific island small states: Ores and metals exports (% of merchandise exports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2018, Pacific island small states' ores and metals exports (% of merchandise exports) fell 0.12 percentage points on 2017 (from 2.14% to 2.02%).

Across the 27 yearly changes before that (1971 to 2017), the average change was +0.03 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.41 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.4 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 1.09 percentage points in 2017 and the biggest yearly fall was 0.72 percentage points in 2016. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2009 to 2018 the straight-line trend is upward, about 0.12 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 60% 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.

How it compares

See how every economy compares in the full ranking.

What this measures

Ores and metals comprise the commodities in SITC (Rev. 3) sections 27 (crude fertilizer, minerals nes); 28 (metalliferous ores, scrap); and 68 (non-ferrous metals). Exports of services are services provided by residents to non-residents. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of merchandise exports which is comprised of goods whose economic ownership is changed between a resident and a non-resident and that are not included in the following specific categories: goods under merchanting, non-monetary gold, and parts of travel, construction, and government goods and services n.i.e.

Limitations: Previous editions contained data based on the SITC revision 1. Data for earlier years in previous editions may differ because of the change in methodology. Concordance tables are available to convert data reported in one system to another.

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

All 30 values

Ores and metals exports (% of merchandise exports) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 2.2% (2019)
• Algeria — 0.46% (2024)
• Bahrain — 64.78% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 4.99% (2025)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 4.66% (2023)
• Iraq — 0.00324% (2024)
• Israel — 1.55% (2025)
• Jordan — 8.5% (2024)
• Kuwait — 0.2% (2025)
• Lebanon

More private sector & trade data for Pacific island small states

• Merchandise trade (% of GDP) — 66.16% (2025)
• Merchandise imports (current US$) — US$6.45 billion (2025)
• Merchandise exports (current US$) — US$2.15 billion (2025)
• Merchandise imports from high-income economies (% of total merchandise imports) — 75.14% (2023)
• Merchandise imports by the reporting economy, residual (% of total merchandise imports) — 0.000000000000000234% (2023)
• Merchandise imports by the reporting economy (current US$) — US$25.44 billion (2023)
• Merchandise exports to high-income economies (% of total merchandise exports) — 53.25% (2023)

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Questions people ask

What is Pacific island small states's ores and metals exports (% of merchandise exports)?

2.02% in 2018, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1970?

It is up 0.69 percentage points from 1.33% in 1970. The highest value was 2.14% in 2017 and the lowest 0.09% in 1981.

Is the latest change in ores and metals exports (% of merchandise exports) unusual for Pacific island small states?

In 2018, Pacific island small states' ores and metals exports (% of merchandise exports) fell 0.12 percentage points on 2017 (from 2.14% to 2.02%). Across the 27 yearly changes before that (1971 to 2017), the average change was +0.03 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.41 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.4 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 TX.VAL.MMTL.ZS.UN, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Comtrade database, United Nations (UN), publisher: UN Statistics Division; World Integrated Trade Solution system (WITS); Staff estimates, World Bank (WB) 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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