Total Natural Resources Rents
Total Natural Resources Rents by country
Commentary
Notable countries
Libya stands out with total natural resources rents equal to 61.03% of GDP, far ahead of the global mean of 7.039%. The top ranks are dominated by African and Asian countries, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Iraq, Timor-Leste, Mongolia and Iran all posting very high shares, while Guyana is a notable South American outlier in seventh place at 33.68%. At the bottom, several countries across Europe, Asia, North America and Oceania report 0%, including Malta, Singapore, Iceland and Tuvalu.
Regional trends
Africa has the highest continental average at 11.43%, followed closely by Asia at 10.61%, and both regions also supply most of the highest-ranking countries. South America is also above the world mean at 9.841%, helped by strong performers such as Guyana. Oceania sits lower at 4.56%, while North America (1.48%) and Europe (1.244%) have the lowest regional averages, indicating much smaller natural resource rent shares in GDP overall.
Data source
The data come from the World Bank indicator NY.GDP.TOTL.RT.ZS for 2021, measured as total natural resources rents as a percentage of GDP. Coverage includes 191 countries. A caveat is that many countries record values at or near 0%, so the indicator reflects the economic weight of resource rents rather than total resource endowment alone.
Interpretation
Higher values mean natural resource rents make up a larger share of a country's GDP, which in this dataset is treated as better. Very high shares can signal strong resource-based income, but they also show that national output is heavily tied to natural resources. Low or zero values indicate that resource rents contribute little to GDP, so the overall picture is one of very wide cross-country variation in how important natural resources are to economic output.