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

Ranking 2024

Analysis

This metric measures the total outflow of payments from a country for goods, services, and primary income received from the rest of the world. According to the source definition, imports of goods includes change in the economic ownership of goods from non-residents to residents of the compiling economy, irrespective of physical movement of goods across national borders. Imports of services includes services provided by non-residents to 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 to other institutional units. Values are reported in current US dollars, and a higher value indicates greater total import absorption. The dataset covers 192 countries, with 185 of 192 (96.4%) having data from the last seven years, 100% of data points classified as official quality, and 28 extreme outliers identified at the 3-sigma threshold.

The top of the ranking is dominated by large, wealthy economies with extensive trade networks. The United States (rank 1) at $5.63 trillion stands well above China (rank 2) at $3.69 trillion and Germany (rank 3) at $2.06 trillion. The United Kingdom (rank 4, $1.71 trillion) and France (rank 5, $1.42 trillion) follow. Notably, smaller economies with large financial sectors or trade entrepot roles appear high: Ireland ranks 8th at $1.08 trillion and Singapore ranks 9th at $1.07 trillion, both exceeding India (rank 10, $1.03 trillion) despite much smaller populations. Luxembourg ranks 19th at $557 billion, reflecting its role as a financial center.

In the middle of the ranking, countries such as Poland (rank 22, $498.8 billion) and Brazil (rank 23, $497.4 billion) are closely matched despite very different economic structures. Viet Nam ranks 25th at $419.9 billion, placing it above Turkiye (rank 26, $392.5 billion) and Sweden (rank 27, $383.4 billion). At the lower end, small island economies and landlocked developing states cluster near the bottom. Tuvalu (rank 192, $57.7 million), Nauru (rank 191, $193.6 million), and the Marshall Islands (rank 189, $217.7 million) record the lowest values. Among mid-tier economies, Cyprus (rank 58, $75.6 billion) and Malta (rank 60, $69.1 billion) rank higher than much larger countries such as Nigeria (rank 61, $68.2 billion), reflecting their outsized financial and services sectors relative to population.

This metric combines goods, services, and primary income into a single aggregate, which can make comparison between countries with different economic structures difficult. Countries with large financial sectors may report elevated primary income flows that are unrelated to physical trade. Data coverage for 2024 is 79.2% (152 of 192 countries), meaning the most recent year relies on estimates or older data for a portion of the ranking. The 28 extreme outliers identified at the 3-sigma threshold suggest that a small number of countries report values that deviate sharply from the global distribution, which may reflect reporting differences or structural economic features rather than data errors. Exchange rate fluctuations affect current US dollar values across years, and comparisons over time should account for this.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code BM.GSR.TOTL.CD, for the reference year 2024. The metric measures imports of goods, services, and primary income in current US dollars. Per the source definition: imports of goods includes change in the economic ownership of goods from non-residents to residents of the compiling economy, irrespective of physical movement of goods across national borders. Imports of services includes services provided by non-residents to 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 to other institutional units. The ranking covers 192 countries. Of these, 185 (96.4%) have data from within the last seven years, and 100% of data points are classified as official quality. Data for the latest year (2024) are available for 152 of 192 countries (79.2%), with the remainder drawn from earlier years or estimates. The dataset contains 28 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, and the average year-over-year change is 13.3%. Values range from $57.7 million (Tuvalu) to $5.63 trillion (United States), a spread of over 9.7 million percent. Current US dollar values are subject to exchange rate variation across reporting periods.

Sources

• World Bank