Ireland - Total natural resources rents (% of GDP)

Total natural resources rents (% of GDP) in Ireland was 0.024 as of 2019. Its highest value over the past 49 years was 0.940 in 1974, while its lowest value was 0.018 in 2015.

Definition: Total natural resources rents are the sum of oil rents, natural gas rents, coal rents (hard and soft), mineral rents, and forest rents.

Source: Estimates based on sources and methods described in "The Changing Wealth of Nations: Measuring Sustainable Development in the New Millennium" (World Bank, 2011).

See also:

Year Value
1970 0.427
1971 0.271
1972 0.276
1973 0.742
1974 0.940
1975 0.185
1976 0.155
1977 0.169
1978 0.209
1979 0.453
1980 0.377
1981 0.271
1982 0.184
1983 0.374
1984 0.410
1985 0.413
1986 0.205
1987 0.130
1988 0.670
1989 0.795
1990 0.327
1991 0.175
1992 0.146
1993 0.124
1994 0.114
1995 0.097
1996 0.104
1997 0.115
1998 0.045
1999 0.035
2000 0.085
2001 0.063
2002 0.052
2003 0.039
2004 0.058
2005 0.067
2006 0.313
2007 0.288
2008 0.042
2009 0.049
2010 0.102
2011 0.094
2012 0.055
2013 0.034
2014 0.033
2015 0.018
2016 0.071
2017 0.123
2018 0.137
2019 0.024

Development Relevance: Accounting for the contribution of natural resources to economic output is important in building an analytical framework for sustainable development. In some countries earnings from natural resources, especially from fossil fuels and minerals, account for a sizable share of GDP, and much of these earnings come in the form of economic rents - revenues above the cost of extracting the resources. Natural resources give rise to economic rents because they are not produced. For produced goods and services competitive forces expand supply until economic profits are driven to zero, but natural resources in fixed supply often command returns well in excess of their cost of production. Rents from nonrenewable resources - fossil fuels and minerals - as well as rents from overharvesting of forests indicate the liquidation of a country's capital stock. When countries use such rents to support current consumption rather than to invest in new capital to replace what is being used up, they are, in effect, borrowing against their future.

Limitations and Exceptions: This definition of economic rent differs from that used in the System of National Accounts, where rents are a form of property income, consisting of payments to landowners by a tenant for the use of the land or payments to the owners of subsoil assets by institutional units permitting them to extract subsoil deposits.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The estimates of natural resources rents are calculated as the difference between the price of a commodity and the average cost of producing it. This is done by estimating the world price of units of specific commodities and subtracting estimates of average unit costs of extraction or harvesting costs (including a normal return on capital). These unit rents are then multiplied by the physical quantities countries extract or harvest to determine the rents for each commodity as a share of gross domestic product (GDP).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Natural resources contribution to GDP