Countries by Exports of goods, services and primary income (BoP, current US$)

Ranking 2024

Analysis

This metric measures the total value of a country's exports of goods, services, and primary income in current US dollars, as recorded in the balance of payments. According to the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code BX.GSR.TOTL.CD), exports of goods includes changes in the economic ownership of goods from residents of the compiling economy to non-residents, irrespective of physical movement of goods across national borders. Exports of services includes services provided by residents to non-residents. Primary income represents the return that accrues to institutional units for their contribution to the production process or for the provision of financial assets and renting natural resources. The ranking covers 192 countries with data for the reference year 2024. Of those, 96.4% have data from the last seven years, and 100% of data points are classified as official. The viability check identified 32 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, reflecting the very wide dispersion in this dataset.

The top of the ranking is dominated by large advanced economies and major trading hubs. The United States leads at $4.68 trillion (rank 1), with China second at $4.10 trillion (rank 2) and Germany third at $2.41 trillion (rank 3). The United Kingdom ($1.65 trillion, rank 4), France ($1.48 trillion, rank 5), and the Netherlands ($1.42 trillion, rank 6) follow. Ireland ranks 8th at $1.19 trillion and Singapore ranks 9th at $1.18 trillion, both punching well above their geographic size due to the weight of services and primary income flows in their totals. Luxembourg ranks 20th at $561.9 billion, another smaller economy with an outsized position driven by financial services captured in the primary income component.

The middle of the ranking shows considerable diversity. Poland (rank 21, $504.7 billion) and Viet Nam (rank 24, $434.9 billion) sit alongside much larger economies like Brazil (rank 26, $426.7 billion) and Saudi Arabia (rank 27, $408.1 billion). Cyprus ranks 53rd at $72.9 billion, ahead of New Zealand (rank 54, $72.6 billion), despite Cyprus having a far smaller population and domestic economy, a placement reflecting financial and services activity recorded in its balance of payments. At the lower end, countries like Tuvalu (rank 192, $44.6 million), Palau (rank 191, $87.3 million), and Sao Tome and Principe (rank 190, $133.2 million) record minimal totals consistent with very small, isolated economies with limited trade linkages.

Several limitations affect interpretation of this metric. The 2024 data year shows that only 79.2% of countries (152 of 192) have data from the latest year, meaning some values are carried forward or estimated. The primary income component can be large for countries with significant cross-border investment positions, which may cause rankings to diverge from simple merchandise trade rankings. Reporting quality varies across economies, particularly for lower-income countries, and the balance of payments methodology relies on national statistical capacity. All values are in current US dollars, so exchange rate movements can shift rankings between years independently of underlying trade volumes. The year-over-year average change of 16.0% across the dataset further signals that rankings can shift meaningfully from one year to the next.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code BX.GSR.TOTL.CD, for the reference year 2024. The metric is defined as follows: exports of goods includes changes in the economic ownership of goods from residents of the compiling economy to non-residents, irrespective of physical movement of goods across national borders. Exports of services includes services provided by residents to non-residents. Primary income represents the return that accrues to institutional units for their contribution to the production process or for the provision of financial assets and renting natural resources. All values are expressed in current US dollars. The ranking covers 192 countries. Of these, 185 (96.4%) have data from the last seven years, and 100% of data points are classified as official quality. The viability check identified 32 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold. The average year-over-year change across the dataset is 16.0%. Data for the latest year (2024) are available for 152 of 192 countries (79.2%), with the remainder relying on more recent prior-year figures. The value range spans from $44.6 million (Tuvalu, rank 192) to $4.68 trillion (United States, rank 1), a spread of over 10 million percent.

Sources

• World Bank