Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World

by Vaclav Smil

The top four economies remain the top four manufacturing powers, and accounted for about 60 percent of the world’s manufacturing output in 2018. China was at the top of the list with about 30 percent, followed by the United States (about 17 percent), Japan, and Germany. But these countries differ markedly in the relative importance of manufacturing to each of their economies. The sector contributed more than 29 percent of China’s GDP in 2018—in the same year, manufacturing’s share came to about 21 percent in Japan and Germany, and only 12 percent in the United States. If you rank countries by per capita manufacturing value, then Germany, with about $10,200 in 2018, came out on top among the big four, followed by Japan with about $7,900, the United States with about $6,800, and China with only $2,900. But the global leader is now Ireland, the country that until it joined the EU (then known as the EEC) in 1973 had only a small manufacturing sector. Its low corporate tax (12.5 percent) has attracted scores of multinationals, who now produce 90 percent of the country’s manufactured exports, and the country’s manufacturing value per capita has surpassed $25,000 a year, ahead of Switzerland’s $15,000. When you think about Swiss manufacturing, you think about such famous domestic firms as Novartis and Roche (pharmaceuticals) or the Swatch Group (watches, including Longines, Omega, Tissot, and other famous brands). When you think of Irish manufacturing, you think about Apple, John...