European Union - Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP) in European Union was 0.174 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.559 in 1981, while its lowest value was 0.095 in 1998.

Definition: Total natural resources rents are the sum of oil rents, natural gas rents, coal rents (hard and soft), mineral rents, and forest rents.

Source: Estimates based on sources and methods described in "The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium" (World Bank, 2011).

See also:

Year Value
1970 0.235
1971 0.219
1972 0.195
1973 0.247
1974 0.376
1975 0.482
1976 0.512
1977 0.432
1978 0.356
1979 0.425
1980 0.496
1981 0.559
1982 0.502
1983 0.466
1984 0.415
1985 0.440
1986 0.235
1987 0.205
1988 0.226
1989 0.262
1990 0.279
1991 0.194
1992 0.156
1993 0.155
1994 0.136
1995 0.145
1996 0.153
1997 0.148
1998 0.095
1999 0.101
2000 0.201
2001 0.233
2002 0.193
2003 0.175
2004 0.213
2005 0.228
2006 0.292
2007 0.289
2008 0.401
2009 0.249
2010 0.321
2011 0.393
2012 0.343
2013 0.281
2014 0.222
2015 0.161
2016 0.136
2017 0.164
2018 0.189
2019 0.174

Development Relevance: Accounting for the contribution of natural resources to economic output is important in building an analytical framework for sustainable development. In some countries earnings from natural resources, especially from fossil fuels and minerals, account for a sizable share of GDP, and much of these earnings come in the form of economic rents - revenues above the cost of extracting the resources. Natural resources give rise to economic rents because they are not produced. For produced goods and services competitive forces expand supply until economic profits are driven to zero, but natural resources in fixed supply often command returns well in excess of their cost of production. Rents from nonrenewable resources - fossil fuels and minerals - as well as rents from overharvesting of forests indicate the liquidation of a country's capital stock. When countries use such rents to support current consumption rather than to invest in new capital to replace what is being used up, they are, in effect, borrowing against their future.

Limitations and Exceptions: This definition of economic rent differs from that used in the System of National Accounts, where rents are a form of property income, consisting of payments to landowners by a tenant for the use of the land or payments to the owners of subsoil assets by institutional units permitting them to extract subsoil deposits.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The estimates of natural resources rents are calculated as the difference between the price of a commodity and the average cost of producing it. This is done by estimating the world price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs (including a normal return on capital). These unit rents are then multiplied by the physical quantities countries extract or harvest to determine the rents for each commodity as a share of gross domestic product (GDP).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Natural resources contribution to GDP