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Material footprint per gross domestic product

What you should know about this indicator

Material footprint per unit of GDP, by type of raw material (kilograms per constant 2015 United States dollar)

Further information available at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-12-02-01.pdf

Material footprint per gross domestic product
Material footprint per unit of GDP, by type of raw material (kilograms per constant 2015 United States dollar)
Source
United Nations Environment Programme – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
August 27, 2024
Next expected update
August 2026
Date range
2000–2022
Unit
kilograms per constant usd

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) dataset is the primary collection of data tracking progress towards the SDG indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources.

Retrieved on
August 27, 2024
Retrieved from
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
United Nations Environment Programme via UN SDG Indicators Database (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/dataportal), UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (accessed 2024). More information available at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-12-02-01.pdf.

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Material footprint per gross domestic product”. Our World in Data (2025). Data adapted from United Nations Environment Programme. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/material-footprint-per-unit-of-gdp [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

United Nations Environment Programme – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

United Nations Environment Programme – processed by Our World in Data. “Material footprint per gross domestic product” [dataset]. United Nations Environment Programme, “WESR / Global Material Flows Database” [original data]. Retrieved January 13, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/material-footprint-per-unit-of-gdp