Countries by Transport services (% of service exports, BoP)
Mozambique ranks first globally, with transport services accounting for 78.44% of its total service exports, according to World Bank data. At the opposite end, Liberia records just 0.39%, placing 191st. The 78-percentage-point gap between top and bottom reflects how differently countries depend on transport as a share of what they sell to the rest of the world in services.
Ranking 2024
Values shown in %.
Analysis
This metric measures transport services as a percentage of total service exports, using World Bank World Development Indicators indicator BX.GSR.TRAN.ZS. Per the source definition: 'Transport services covers the process of carriage of people and objects from one location to another as well as related supporting and auxiliary services. Also included are postal and courier services. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of service exports which are services provided by residents to non-residents.' The unit is percentage share. The ranking covers 191 countries. Data recency is strong, with 184 of 191 countries (96.3%) reporting within the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints classified as official-quality. The latest reference year is 2024, though 150 of 191 countries (78.5%) have data specifically for that year. The data contains 25 extreme outliers by a 3-standard-deviation threshold, and the range spans from 0.39% to 78.44%, a spread of over 20,000%.
The top of the ranking is dominated by countries where transport services are the overwhelming driver of service export revenue. Mozambique (rank 1, 78.44%) and Ethiopia (rank 2, 78.35%) are separated by less than 0.1 percentage points, the closest gap anywhere near the top. Djibouti ranks 3rd at 60.51%, and Qatar follows at rank 4 with 59.61%. Denmark, at rank 7 with 51.97%, stands out as the highest-ranked European country. Panama (rank 8, 49.95%) and Lithuania (rank 11, 46.92%) also appear in the top tier. High values generally reflect economies where transport, freight, or logistics form the core of internationally traded services.
The middle of the ranking contains several counterintuitive placements. Greece, historically associated with shipping, ranks 18th at 41.16%, while Singapore, a major global port, ranks 34th at 32.72%, and Hong Kong SAR, China ranks 32nd at 32.90%. By contrast, Venezuela (rank 13, 45.76%) and Solomon Islands (rank 14, 45.20%) rank above both. Among large advanced economies, Germany sits at rank 71 (20.95%), the United States at rank 133 (8.87%), and the United Kingdom at rank 143 (6.54%). Ireland ranks near the bottom at 176th with just 2.22%, reflecting a service export mix dominated by sectors other than transport. Maldives ranks 170th at 3.34%, despite being a heavily tourism-linked island economy, which illustrates that tourism-related services and transport services are categorized separately in balance of payments accounting.
Several data limitations affect interpretation of this metric. Because the indicator expresses transport as a share of total service exports rather than in absolute terms, a country with a very small but transport-heavy service sector can rank higher than a large economy with substantial transport revenues that also has large non-transport service exports. Countries with undiversified service sectors are structurally more likely to rank near the top. Reporting reliability varies: the consistency check finds that only 78.5% of countries have data specifically for 2024, meaning some rankings reflect earlier years. The 25 extreme outliers flagged at the 3-standard-deviation threshold suggest that some values may reflect data revisions, methodological shifts, or one-time reporting anomalies rather than structural economic conditions. Year-over-year volatility averages 36.9%, indicating that rankings can shift substantially between periods for individual countries.
Methodology
Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code BX.GSR.TRAN.ZS, data year 2024. The metric is defined as follows in the source note: 'Transport services covers the process of carriage of people and objects from one location to another as well as related supporting and auxiliary services. Also included are postal and courier services. This indicator is expressed as a percentage of service exports which are services provided by residents to non-residents.' The ranking covers 191 countries, all with data meeting the 80-country coverage threshold. 184 of 191 countries (96.3%) have data from within the last seven years. 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. Data for the latest year (2024) is available for 150 of 191 countries (78.5%); remaining countries use the most recent available year. The dataset contains 25 extreme outliers by a 3-standard-deviation threshold. Values range from 0.39% (Liberia, rank 191) to 78.44% (Mozambique, rank 1), a spread of over 20,000%. Average year-over-year change is 36.9%, below the 50% volatility threshold. Rankings should be interpreted with caution where a country's most recent data year differs from 2024.