Zambia: Machinery and transport equipment (% of value added in manufacturing)

Key figures

Over five years it is up 19.02 percentage points from 22.04% in 2010. Since 1963 it is up 37.98 percentage points from 3.08% in 1963. The World Bank has no value for 26 of the years in between; the chart leaves those gaps open rather than joining across them.

What the numbers say

In 2015, Zambia's machinery and transport equipment (% of value added in manufacturing) rose 6.28 percentage points on 2014 (from 34.79% to 41.06%).

Across the 22 yearly changes before that (1964 to 2014), the average change was +0.9 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.05 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 1.8 standard deviations above 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 10.62 percentage points in 2014 and the biggest yearly fall was 3.28 percentage points in 2012. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

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

Closest to Zambia in the 2015 ranking

• Ethiopia — 2nd of 3: 5.45%
• Ghana — 3rd of 3: 0.79%

What this measures

Machinery and transport equipment manufacturing includes industries classified in ISIC (Rev. 3) divisions 29-35. 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 27 values

Machinery and transport equipment (% of value added in manufacturing) in nearby economies

• Botswana — 16.46% (2023)
• Côte d'Ivoire — 1.61% (2022)
• Ethiopia — 5.45% (2015)
• Ghana — 0.79% (2015)
• Kenya — 5.59% (2023)
• Madagascar — 0.89% (2024)
• Malawi — 0.32% (2021)
• Mauritius — 5.6% (2023)
• Senegal

More economic policy & debt data for Zambia

• Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (current US$) — US$1.19 billion (2025)
• Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (current LCU) — 29.79 billion (2025)
• Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (% of GDP) — 4.11% (2025)
• Manufacturing, value added (current US$) — US$2.53 billion (2025)
• Manufacturing, value added (current LCU) — 63.49 billion (2025)
• Manufacturing, value added (% of GDP) — 8.75% (2025)
• Industry, including construction, value added (current US$) — US$10.2 billion (2025)
• Industry, including construction, value added (current LCU) — 256.39 billion (2025)
• Industry, including construction, value added (% of GDP)

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 Zambia's machinery and transport equipment (% of value added in manufacturing)?

41.06% in 2015, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 1963?

It is up 37.98 percentage points from 3.08% in 1963. The highest value was 41.06% in 2015 and the lowest 0.59% in 1993.

Is the latest change in machinery and transport equipment (% of value added in manufacturing) unusual for Zambia?

In 2015, Zambia's machinery and transport equipment (% of value added in manufacturing) rose 6.28 percentage points on 2014 (from 34.79% to 41.06%). Across the 22 yearly changes before that (1964 to 2014), the average change was +0.9 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 3.05 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 1.8 standard deviations above 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.MTRN.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.

Want to ask your own questions of data like this? Try AnalyzeIt: upload a file or ask about public data in plain words, and every figure comes with its working.