Services Value Added
Services Value Added by country
Commentary
Notable countries
Monaco leads with services making up 87.2% of GDP, followed by Malta and Luxembourg, both above 81%, showing a very strong concentration of economic activity in services. At the other end, Guyana is the clear outlier at 14.46%, far below the next-lowest countries Libya and Tanzania, both below 30%. A notable surprise is Sao Tome and Principe ranking fourth globally at 80.34%, alongside Djibouti in the top 10, while the United States also stands out with a high 77.6%.
Regional trends
North America has the highest regional average at 64.53%, closely followed by Europe at 63.97%, with Oceania also above the global mean at 61.02%. Asia averages 52.72% and South America 51.65%, both below the world mean of 56.32% but well above Africa’s 48.94%, the lowest regional average. Even so, Africa shows wide variation, containing both top-10 performers such as Sao Tome and Principe and Djibouti and several of the lowest-ranked countries.
Data source
The data come from the World Bank indicator NV.SRV.TOTL.ZS (2024) and are measured as services value added as a share of GDP (%). Coverage includes 187 countries. A key caveat is that this is a structural share of GDP, so it shows the relative size of services in each economy rather than the absolute size or quality of the sector.
Interpretation
Higher values indicate that services account for a larger share of national output, which is treated here as better, and often reflects more service-oriented economic structures. Lower values suggest a greater reliance on agriculture, industry, or extractive sectors instead of services. Still, a high services share is not automatically a sign of broad-based prosperity, and a low share does not by itself imply weak overall output. The broad takeaway is that richer and more service-led regions tend to rank higher, but there are important exceptions in both directions.