Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income): Manufacturing, value added (constant 2015 US$)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2025, Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)'s manufacturing, value added (constant 2015 US$) rose 2.3% on 2024 (from US$198.07 billion to US$202.64 billion).

Across the 30 yearly changes before that (1995 to 2024), the average change was +2.6% and a typical year strayed about 4.1% from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.1 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 16.4% in 2011 and the biggest yearly fall was 11.2% in 1983. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2016 to 2025 the straight-line trend is upward, about US$2.65 billion a year. A straight line explains 70% 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 US$206.65 billion for 2028. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2023 to 2025 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was US$5.18 billion, against US$8.62 billion 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.

What this measures

Manufacturing includes industries classified in ISIC (Rev. 3) major division C and is defined as the physical or chemical transformation of materials or components into new products. 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 in constant prices, meaning the series has been adjusted to account for price changes over time. The reference year for this adjustment is 2015. This indicator is expressed in United States dollars.

Limitations: Ideally, industrial output should be measured through regular censuses and surveys of firms. But in most developing countries such surveys are infrequent, so earlier survey results must be extrapolated using an appropriate indicator. The choice of sampling unit, which may be the enterprise (where responses may be based on financial records) or the establishment (where production units may be recorded separately), also affects the quality of the data. Moreover, much industrial production is organized in unincorporated or owner-operated ventures that are not captured by surveys aimed at the formal sector.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a gap-filled total.

All 45 values

Manufacturing, value added (constant 2015 US$) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — US$2.72 billion (2024)
• Algeria — US$21.28 billion (2024)
• Bahrain — US$7.57 billion (2025)
• Djibouti — US$163.56 million (2024)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — US$64.38 billion (2025)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — US$85.48 billion (2024)
• Iraq — US$11.16 billion (2025)
• Israel — US$55.8 billion (2024)
• Jordan — US$9.24 billion (2025)
• Kuwait

More economic policy & debt data for Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)

• Charges for the use of intellectual property, payments (BoP, current US$) — US$3.07 billion (2025)
• Portfolio equity, net inflows (BoP, current US$) — −US$472.27 million (2025)
• GDP (current US$) — US$2.21 trillion (2025)
• GDP (constant 2015 US$) — US$2.13 trillion (2025)
• GDP per capita (current US$) — US$1,671 (2025)
• GDP per capita (constant 2015 US$) — US$1,614 (2025)
• GDP (annual % growth) — 4.14% (2025)
• GDP per capita (annual % growth) — 1.64% (2025)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income)'s manufacturing, value added (constant 2015 US$)?

US$202.64 billion in 2025, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1981?

It is up 70.82% from US$118.63 billion in 1981 (1.22% a year on average, compounded). The highest value was US$202.64 billion in 2025 and the lowest US$92.98 billion in 1995.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator NV.IND.MANF.KD, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: Country official statistics, National Statistical Offices (NSOs); National Accounts data files, Central Banks; 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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