Ireland - Mineral rents (% of GDP)

Mineral rents (% of GDP) in Ireland was 0.009 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.911 in 1974, while its lowest value was 0.000 in 1983.

Definition: Mineral rents are the difference between the value of production for a stock of minerals at world prices and their total costs of production. Minerals included in the calculation are tin, gold, lead, zinc, iron, copper, nickel, silver, bauxite, and phosphate.

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 0.391
1971 0.240
1972 0.241
1973 0.697
1974 0.911
1975 0.148
1976 0.098
1977 0.134
1978 0.108
1979 0.323
1980 0.161
1981 0.048
1982 0.021
1983 0.000
1984 0.003
1985 0.000
1986 0.000
1987 0.006
1988 0.541
1989 0.645
1990 0.155
1991 0.035
1992 0.041
1993 0.000
1994 0.008
1995 0.000
1996 0.000
1997 0.034
1998 0.000
1999 0.000
2000 0.024
2001 0.000
2002 0.000
2003 0.000
2004 0.026
2005 0.042
2006 0.280
2007 0.261
2008 0.007
2009 0.019
2010 0.072
2011 0.062
2012 0.024
2013 0.004
2014 0.008
2015 0.001
2016 0.010
2017 0.042
2018 0.031
2019 0.009

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