United States - Forest rents (% of GDP)

Forest rents (% of GDP) in United States was 0.040 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.183 in 1979, while its lowest value was 0.035 in 2018.

Definition: Forest rents are roundwood harvest times the product of average prices and a region-specific rental rate.

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 0.109
1971 0.130
1972 0.121
1973 0.158
1974 0.148
1975 0.160
1976 0.152
1977 0.153
1978 0.172
1979 0.183
1980 0.151
1981 0.117
1982 0.126
1983 0.107
1984 0.101
1985 0.087
1986 0.103
1987 0.109
1988 0.111
1989 0.114
1990 0.125
1991 0.102
1992 0.102
1993 0.135
1994 0.116
1995 0.118
1996 0.107
1997 0.102
1998 0.075
1999 0.077
2000 0.073
2001 0.059
2002 0.057
2003 0.057
2004 0.061
2005 0.058
2006 0.059
2007 0.062
2008 0.049
2009 0.036
2010 0.045
2011 0.049
2012 0.042
2013 0.045
2014 0.044
2015 0.036
2016 0.037
2017 0.041
2018 0.035
2019 0.040

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