Pacific island small states: Transport services (% of commercial service exports)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2024, Pacific island small states' transport services (% of commercial service exports) rose 1.01 percentage points on 2023 (from 38.89% to 39.89%).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1994 to 2023), the average change was +0.51 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.1 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.2 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 9 percentage points in 2005 and the biggest yearly fall was 7.17 percentage points in 1985. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2015 to 2024 the straight-line trend is upward, about 1.56 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 85% 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 42.27% for 2027. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2022 to 2024 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 6.14%, against 8.26% 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 exports which are commercial services provided by residents to non-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 43 values

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

• Afghanistan — 14.49% (2020)
• Algeria — 27.65% (2025)
• Bahrain — 16.02% (2025)
• Djibouti — 84.28% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 28.53% (2025)
• Iraq — 3.49% (2025)
• Israel — 7.78% (2025)
• Jordan — 17.34% (2024)
• Kuwait — 14.92% (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)

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 Pacific island small states's transport services (% of commercial service exports)?

39.89% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1982?

It is up 15.39 percentage points from 24.5% in 1982. The highest value was 39.89% in 2024 and the lowest 16.78% in 1986.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator TX.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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