Database
ETD – Economic Transformation Database

Open and free to use, the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database (ETD) provides comprehensive, long-term, and internationally comparable sectoral data on employment and productivity in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

The ETD covers:

  • measures of economic growth and labour inputs for 51 economies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America;
  • 12 sectors of the total economy;
  • time series with annual data from 1990 until 2018;
  • data on value added, price deflators, and persons employed.

The ETD is the successor of the GGDC 10-sector database developed by the Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) of the University of Groningen. The ETD project has been supported by UNU-WIDER financially and through joint research work.

The ETD is also accessible through GGDC's webpages.

Change log

Please consult the change log for an overview of the changes.

On 15 July 2021 we updated the ETD.

September 2023

A mistake for sectoral employment in the wholesale and retail trade sector of Bangladesh in 2014 is corrected.

An issue with the value added price deflators for business services, financial services, and the real estate sector in Myanmar for the period 1990-2014 is corrected.

The numbers representing persons engaged have been rounded to reflect individual count.

Full dataset

Excel Stata R
ETD release 2021.xlsx ETD release 2021.dta ETD release 2021.rds

Attribution requirement: Kruse, H., E. Mensah, K. Sen, and G. J. de Vries (2022). “A manufacturing renaissance? Industrialization trends in the developing world”, IMF Economic Review DOI: 10.1057/s41308-022-00183-7

License: The GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Please contact the ETD team at GGDC regarding any questions on the database. We welcome comments from users of the dataset.

The database may be updated and notifications and details about the updates will be given on the database files. Some minor corrections can be done without a change in the database version.

A technical note and working paper describing the construction, sources and methods of the ETD can be found under Documentation below.

Country and variable coverage

Developing Asia (14) Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Viet Nam 
Advanced Asia (6) Hong Kong (China), Israel, Japan, Korea (Rep. of), Singapore, Chinese Taipei
Latin America (9) Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru
Middle East and North Africa (4) Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey
Sub-Saharan Africa (18) Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia 
Time period (annual data) 1990–2018
Variables Gross value added at constant (2015) prices (national currency in millions)

Gross value added at current prices (national currency in millions)

Persons employed (in thousands)
Principal sources National accounts; population censuses; labour force surveys; business surveys
Notes Asian countries are grouped into developing Asia based on the classification by the IMF (2020)
Sectors covered

Twelve economic sectors of the total economy:
 
ISIC Rev. 4 code Brief description
A Agriculture
B Mining
C Manufacturing
D + E Utilities
F Construction
G + I Trade services
H Transport services
J + M + N Business services
K Financial services
L Real estate
O + P + Q Government services
R + S + T + U Other services
Documentation

WIDER Technical Note 2/2021: The Economic Transformation Database (ETD): content, sources, and methods | Download

The technical note describes in detail the sources and methods used in the construction of the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database on a country-by-country basis.

WIDER Working Paper 28/2021: A manufacturing renaissance? Industrialization trends in the developing world | Download

Using sectoral data from the GGDC/UNU-WIDER Economic Transformation Database, the paper examines industrialization trends in selected developing economies in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.