EconomicsFilter

January 10, 2007 12:03 PM

Can anyone point to a link that lists the yearly economic value, in billions, of major industries?

Looking for US or world figures. Interested in any list that includes both legal and illicit industries, such as: video games, gambling, illicit drugs, firearms, movies, pharmaceuticals, tobacco.

posted by sonicbloom to work & money (5 comments total)

I've always wondered where Trump comes up with his info. He said on the Apprentice this past week that in California the Car Wash business is a 2.5 billion dollar market.
posted by thilmony at 12:31 PM on January 10, 2007

You might need to visit a library to get this information; the market research companies which assemble this information charge money for it.
posted by russilwvong at 12:49 PM on January 10, 2007

You could ask this guy, who claims to know that "insurance is the world’s largest industry, [with] $3.2 trillion in yearly revenues".
posted by alms at 1:10 PM on January 10, 2007

US Department of Commerce
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
Also here
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 2:17 PM on January 10, 2007

It really depends on exactly what you are looking for. If you want numbers aggregated by major industry, for example, I find that the best source for US data tends to be the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the DoC. If you want it down to the 5-digit level of the NAICS, however, that can be hard to find until the 2007 economic census results are released sometime next year, although one of the annual ASM surveys might work for you.

Data for exports/imports (which is usually what I'm looking for) is much easier to find, as it is reported down to 6-digit code detail at the USITC Dataweb database (login with BugMeNot), but it doesn't look like that data would work for you.

There is lots of good info available on US government sites, it's just a matter of digging it up... Good luck!
posted by gemmy at 6:05 PM on January 10, 2007