Saudi Arabia: Food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2022, Saudi Arabia's food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) fell 1.17 percentage points on 2021 (from 10.48% to 9.31%).

Across the 15 yearly changes before that (2003 to 2021), the average change was +0.45 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.56 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 1.0 standard deviations below that average, so it was larger than a typical year, though not out of the range seen before.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 3.39 percentage points in 2003 and the biggest yearly fall was 2.19 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.

From 2013 to 2022 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 24% of the movement over 10 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

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

How it compares

In 2022, Saudi Arabia had the 17th highest value of the 19 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 Saudi Arabia in the 2022 ranking

• United Kingdom — 14th of 19: 17.58%
• Malaysia — 15th of 19: 12.21%
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 16th of 19: 11.47%
• Ireland — 18th of 19: 6.45%
• Qatar — 19th of 19: 2.8%

What this measures

Manufacturing of food, beverages, and tobacco includes industries classified in ISIC (Rev. 3) divisions 15 and 16. 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 19 values

Food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) in nearby economies

• Algeria — 10.62% (2017)
• Bahrain — 1.23% (2018)
• Djibouti — 77.99% (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 27.84% (2022)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 11.47% (2022)
• Iraq — 33.61% (2022)
• Israel — 12.95% (2021)
• Jordan — 23.51% (2022)
• Kuwait — 7.7% (2021)

More economic policy & debt data for Saudi Arabia

• Total reserves, including gold (current US$) — US$505.16 billion (2025)
• Total reserves, excluding gold (current US$) — US$459.8 billion (2025)
• GDP (current US$) — US$1.28 trillion (2025)
• GDP (current LCU) — 4.79 trillion (2025)
• GDP (constant 2015 US$) — US$926.78 billion (2025)
• GDP (constant LCU) — 4.9 trillion (2025)
• GDP per capita (current US$) — US$34,537 (2025)
• GDP per capita (current LCU) — 129,512 (2025)
• GDP per capita (constant 2015 US$) — US$25,066 (2025)
• GDP per capita (constant LCU) — 132,580 (2025)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
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Questions people ask

What is Saudi Arabia's food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing)?

9.31% in 2022, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1989?

It is up 2.22 percentage points from 7.09% in 1989. The highest value was 19.49% in 2006 and the lowest 7.09% in 1989.

How does Saudi Arabia rank?

17th highest of 19 economies with data for 2022.

Is the latest change in food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) unusual for Saudi Arabia?

In 2022, Saudi Arabia's food, beverages and tobacco (% of value added in manufacturing) fell 1.17 percentage points on 2021 (from 10.48% to 9.31%). Across the 15 yearly changes before that (2003 to 2021), the average change was +0.45 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.56 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 1.0 standard deviations below that average, so it was larger than a typical year, though not out of the range seen before.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator NV.MNF.FBTO.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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