[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"question:18:en-US":3},{"metadata":4,"sys":15,"fields":35},{"tags":5,"concepts":14},[6,11],{"sys":7},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":10},"Link","Tag","global",{"sys":12},{"type":8,"linkType":9,"id":13},"industry",[],{"space":16,"id":20,"type":21,"createdAt":22,"updatedAt":23,"environment":24,"publishedVersion":28,"revision":29,"contentType":30,"locale":34},{"sys":17},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"Space","ghhpjogyw4x7","f714a3089d84817995c36a4f7a8cf4b4","Entry","2021-11-11T07:17:16.216Z","2025-08-11T08:19:37.888Z",{"sys":25},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},"master","Environment",101,26,{"sys":31},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":33},"ContentType","question","en-US",{"globalId":36,"answers":37,"answersAsImages":58,"wrongPercentage":96,"name":97,"questionText":98,"statistics":99,"veryWrongStatistics":120,"correctSentence":141,"youWereWrong":142,"youWereRight":143,"dataSourceShortText":144,"dataSourceLinkLongText":145,"extendedAnswerText":146,"headingVeryWrong":147,"youWereVeryWrong":148,"headingWrong":149},"18",[38,60,79],{"metadata":39,"sys":42,"fields":55},{"tags":40,"concepts":41},[],[],{"space":43,"id":45,"type":21,"createdAt":46,"updatedAt":47,"environment":48,"publishedVersion":50,"revision":51,"contentType":52,"locale":34},{"sys":44},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"e4fe5c18a4dd865ff1bd735eaaa82bbe","2021-11-11T07:17:16.258Z","2025-08-11T08:18:42.841Z",{"sys":49},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},28,18,{"sys":53},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},"answer",{"globalId":56,"correctAnswer":57,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":59},"18-a1",true,false,"Around 5%",{"metadata":61,"sys":64,"fields":76},{"tags":62,"concepts":63},[],[],{"space":65,"id":67,"type":21,"createdAt":68,"updatedAt":69,"environment":70,"publishedVersion":72,"revision":73,"contentType":74,"locale":34},{"sys":66},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"dd4f21c7125a816b274492ef8cd8129b","2021-11-11T07:17:16.287Z","2024-09-16T12:51:55.628Z",{"sys":71},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},23,16,{"sys":75},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":77,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":58,"answerText":78},"18-a2","Around 25%",{"metadata":80,"sys":83,"fields":93},{"tags":81,"concepts":82},[],[],{"space":84,"id":86,"type":21,"createdAt":87,"updatedAt":88,"environment":89,"publishedVersion":72,"revision":73,"contentType":91,"locale":34},{"sys":85},{"type":8,"linkType":18,"id":19},"147994bd7335a8ec52118e58bae962f5","2021-11-11T07:17:16.317Z","2024-09-16T12:51:55.680Z",{"sys":90},{"id":26,"type":8,"linkType":27},{"sys":92},{"type":8,"linkType":32,"id":54},{"globalId":94,"correctAnswer":58,"isVeryWrong":57,"answerText":95},"18-a3","Around 45%",84,"How much of the world's economy comes from agricul","How much of the world's economy comes from agriculture, forestry and fishing?",[100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,115,116,117,118,119],"uk 0.8171999999999999","swe 0.8530387119783029","nor 0.789657971014491","fin 0.817704325667491","dnk 0.901058285300945","usa 0.84","bra 0.89","fra 0.82","deu 0.85","jpn 0.8","mex 0.88","rus 0.68","esp 0.83","mys 0.83","mar 0.84","zaf 0.83","ind 0.69","pak 0.82","nga 0.9","phl 0.78",[121,122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140],"uk 0.33","usa 0.39","bra 0.53","fra 0.42","deu 0.29","jpn 0.26","mex 0.47","rus 0.37","esp 0.40","swe 0.28","mys 0.48","mar 0.49","dnk 0.36","fin 0.28","nor 0.20","zaf 0.41","ind 0.43","pak 0.39","nga 0.37","phl 0.41","Around 5% of the world’s economy comes from agriculture, forestry and fishing.","Many people mistakenly believe that agriculture, forestry and fishing make up more than a fifth of the global economy. When you buy a product just a tiny fraction of the price goes to producers of the raw ingredients and raw materials. Poor countries won’t get rich from such exports.","Many people mistakenly believe that agriculture, forestry and fishing make up more than a fifth of the global economy. They don’t realize what a tiny fraction of the economy comes from production of ingredients and raw materials.","Source: World Bank","The share of the world’s economy which is made up of agriculture, fishing and forestry[1] is only 6%, because almost all money made today comes from services and manufacturing. This is based on national accounts[2] data which is of poorer quality in poorer countries where the informal sector is larger. But this data problem doesn’t influence the global number much, as most of the value is generated in middle- and high-income countries, where data is of higher quality, and in high-income countries, only around 1% of GDP comes from the combined value of agriculture, fishing and forestry. \n\nOver the last 200 years, most countries increased their incomes and as they did they have followed very similar declines of agriculture as a share of their economies[3]. It’s hard to know exactly what the global percentage was at the start of the industrial revolution, but probably around 50%. That’s where a few extremely poor countries still are today.\n\n[1]  [International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC)](https:\u002F\u002Filostat.ilo.org\u002Fresources\u002Fconcepts-and-definitions\u002Fclassification-economic-activities\u002F)  \n[2]  [Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (% of GDP) - World Bank national accounts data and OECD National Accounts data files.](https:\u002F\u002Fdata.worldbank.org\u002Findicator\u002FNV.AGR.TOTL.ZS?locations=XM-XP-XD-1W)  \n[3]  [Share of agriculture in GDP vs GDP per capita, 1801 to 2010, Our World in Data](https:\u002F\u002Fourworldindata.org\u002Fgrapher\u002Fgdp-vs-agriculture-gdp?country=DNK~GBR~USA~ESP~DEU~JPN~BEL~SWE~NLD)  \n[4]  [“Agriculture in the World Economy: an Historical Geography of Decline” by David Grigg in the journal Geography in July 1992.](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.jstor.org\u002Fstable\u002F40572192?seq=1)","During the last 200 years, the share of the world’s economy that comes from agriculture, forestry and fishing has been dropping steadily.\n\nOver that time, most countries increased their average incomes a lot, and as they did agriculture became a smaller and smaller part of their economy. There’s no country that has become rich without reducing agriculture’s share of incomes, by replacing it with other production such as refining raw material into products, manufacturing and services, or by extracting some valuable natural resource like oil.\n\nTo our great surprise, many people in rich countries believe that nearly half of the world’s money still comes from production of wood and the raw ingredients in food. When they buy food, they don’t realize what a tiny fraction of the price goes to the farmer or the fisherman. Almost all the money goes to the food manufacturers and the services who process, package, transport and sell the food to consumers.\n\nToday, most countries are middle-income or high-income, and their economies rely on some combination of manufacturing and services. Working in factories on average pays much better than farming, fishing and forestry. And services on average pay even more (such as jobs in shops, restaurants, banks, education, healthcare, real estate or entertainment industries). Seeing wages from agriculture as a big part of the global economy is an incredibly outdated view. Incomes from agriculture haven’t been 50% of the world economy for 200 years and they haven’t been around 30% for probably 100 years! \n\nIf you don't realize that most countries today have service-based economies, you are probably missing incredible opportunities to work in other places or do business, study and travel.\n\n### Why is it a problem that people are wrong about this?\nJust a few countries today are heavily reliant on agriculture, forestry and fishing to support their economies. If we don’t realize this then we miss the great opportunities available to invest in developing economies globally. We must look at the service industries, modern technologies and manufacturing industries in developing economies today for investment. \n\n### Why are people wrong about this?\nPeople often think there are far more poor people in the world than there are and that the poorer countries are 100 or even 200 years behind where they are, and still heavily reliant on farming, fishing and forestry. People probably don’t want to overlook the work done in these countries and so overestimate the contribution of agriculture, forestry and fishing to the world’s economy.\n\n### Can I trust this fact?\nYes, but we must understand there are caveats. Firstly, this is a global figure and so we must remember there will be variations in this data between regions and countries. Generally, poorer countries are still more reliant on agriculture, forestry and fishing than richer countries. Nonetheless, as these countries progress they will transition towards manufacturing and service industries to support their economies and so investments must be made in these sectors to ensure they prosper over the coming decades. \n","200 years wrong","Many people mistakenly believe that agriculture, forestry and fishing make up more than a fifth of the global economy. Agriculture, forestry and fishing haven’t been a major part of the world economy since the industrial revolution. Poor countries today won’t get rich from such exports.","100 years wrong"]