World: Services, value added (% of GDP)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2024, World's services, value added (% of GDP) rose 0.26 percentage points on 2023 (from 63.04% to 63.3%).

Across the 28 yearly changes before that (1996 to 2023), the average change was −0.09 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.9 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.4 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 1.91 percentage points in 2009 and the biggest yearly fall was 1.85 percentage points in 2022. 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 downward, about 0.21 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 44% 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.

What this measures

Services industries correspond to ISIC (Rev. 4) divisions 45-99 and includes wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, hotels and restaurants, transport, storage and communication, financial intermediation, real estate, renting and business activities, public administration and defence, compulsory social security, education, health and social work, other community, social and personal service activities, private households with employed persons, and extra-territorial organizations and bodies. 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 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period.

Limitations: In the services industry the many self-employed workers and one-person businesses are sometimes difficult to locate, and they have little incentive to respond to surveys, let alone to report their full earnings. Compounding these problems are the many forms of economic activity that go unrecorded, including the work that women and children do for little or no pay.

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

All 30 values

Services, value added (% of GDP) in nearby economies

• Afghanistan — 45.16% (2024)
• Algeria — 45.68% (2025)
• Bahrain — 54.32% (2025)
• Djibouti — 75.66% (2025)
• Egypt, Arab Rep. — 47.31% (2025)
• Iran, Islamic Rep. — 47.09% (2025)
• Iraq — 52.27% (2025)
• Israel — 72.85% (2024)
• Jordan — 56.77% (2025)
• Kuwait — 59.63% (2025)
• Lebanon — 35.73% (2024)

More economic policy & debt data for World

• Charges for the use of intellectual property, payments (BoP, current US$) — US$753.95 billion (2025)
• Portfolio equity, net inflows (BoP, current US$) — US$1.88 trillion (2025)
• GDP (current US$) — US$118.35 trillion (2025)
• GDP (constant 2015 US$) — US$99.66 trillion (2025)
• GDP per capita (current US$) — US$14,406 (2025)
• GDP per capita (constant 2015 US$) — US$12,131 (2025)
• GNI (current US$) — US$117.7 trillion (2025)
• GDP (annual % growth) — 2.92% (2025)
• GDP per capita (annual % growth) — 1.99% (2025)
• Charges for the use of intellectual property, receipts (BoP, current US$)

Reading data like this

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Questions people ask

What is World's services, value added (% of GDP)?

63.3% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1995?

It is down 2.13 percentage points from 65.43% in 1995. The highest value was 65.69% in 2002 and the lowest 62.26% in 2022.

Is the latest change in services, value added (% of GDP) unusual for World?

In 2024, World's services, value added (% of GDP) rose 0.26 percentage points on 2023 (from 63.04% to 63.3%). Across the 28 yearly changes before that (1996 to 2023), the average change was −0.09 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 0.9 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.4 standard deviations above that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

Where does this data come from?

The World Bank's World Development Indicators, 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).

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator NV.SRV.TOTL.ZS, 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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