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What you should know about this indicator

  • One of the defining developments of the past two centuries has been the increasing integration of national economies into a single global system. This indicator illustrates the expansion of trade and the growing interconnectedness of the world economy since 1800.
  • It shows the volume of world trade, measuring the goods exchanged across national borders at constant prices, so that changes in prices don’t distort comparisons over time. The series is expressed as an index relative to a baseline year (here, 1800 = 1).
  • The historical component is based on Federico and Tena-Junguito (2019), who compiled trade statistics from hundreds of historical sources, covering the main trading economies from 1800 and almost every country and colony from 1850, up to 1938, adjusting all estimates to 1913 borders. They measure world trade as the sum of all exports at constant prices, and link their series to United Nations trade statistics for 1950. There are no estimates for 1939–1949. Their original index was expressed relative to 1913 = 100; here, we have re-indexed it so that 1800 = 1.
  • Because definitions varied, the researchers standardized the historical data to modern UN conventions: smuggling, re-exports, transit trade, and bullion were excluded; fiscal years were aligned with calendar years; imports were valued including freight, and exports excluding it. Researchers used detailed price indexes to correct for inflation and shipping costs.
  • After 1950, we extend the series using World Trade Organization (WTO) data on the volume of world merchandise trade, calculated as the average of exports and imports. The WTO index was originally set to 1950 = 100, and we rescaled it to align with the historical series so that all data are expressed on the same 1800 = 1 scale. This allows us to present a consistent long-run view of world trade growth from 1800 to the present.
Growth of global trade
Federico and Tena-Junguito; WTO
World trade index, based on the volume of goods traded between countries, adjusted for price changes (1800 = 1).
Source
World Trade Organization (2026); Federico and Tena-Junguito (2019) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
October 22, 2026
Next expected update
October 2027
Date range
1800–2025
Unit
index 1800=1

Related research and writing

A dark blue background with a lighter blue world map superimposed over it. Yellow text that says Trade and Globalization by Our World in Data

Trade and Globalization

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, Bertha Rohenkohl, Veronika Samborska, Simon Van Teutem, Diana Beltekian, and Max Roser

Is globalization an engine of economic development?

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

World Trade Organization – Evolution of trade under the WTO: handy statistics

Evolution of trade under the WTO: handy statistics is a page of summary statistics on how world trade has grown since 1950. It includes the volume of world merchandise trade each year, both as annual growth and as an index with 1950 = 100. Trade is calculated as average of exports and imports, and excludes significant re-exports or imports for re-exports.

Retrieved on
October 22, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/trade_evolution_e/evolution_trade_wto_e.htm
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.
World Trade Organization. Evolution of trade under the WTO: handy statistics. Retrieved from https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/trade_evolution_e/evolution_trade_wto_e.htm (Accessed: 22 October 2026).

Evolution of trade under the WTO: handy statistics is a page of summary statistics on how world trade has grown since 1950. It includes the volume of world merchandise trade each year, both as annual growth and as an index with 1950 = 100. Trade is calculated as average of exports and imports, and excludes significant re-exports or imports for re-exports.

Retrieved on
October 22, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/trade_evolution_e/evolution_trade_wto_e.htm
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.
World Trade Organization. Evolution of trade under the WTO: handy statistics. Retrieved from https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/trade_evolution_e/evolution_trade_wto_e.htm (Accessed: 22 October 2026).

Federico and Tena-Junguito – Federico-Tena World Trade Historical Database

The Federico-Tena World Trade Historical Database reports the imports and exports of almost every country and colony from 1800 to 1938, at current and constant prices, and within both their borders at the time and their 1913 borders. Its world trade index measures the volume of world trade as the sum of all countries’ exports at constant prices.

Retrieved on
September 22, 2025
Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0212610918000216
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.
Federico, G., & Tena-Junguito, A. (2019). World trade, 1800-1938: A new synthesis. Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 37(1), 9–41. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0212610918000216

The Federico-Tena World Trade Historical Database reports the imports and exports of almost every country and colony from 1800 to 1938, at current and constant prices, and within both their borders at the time and their 1913 borders. Its world trade index measures the volume of world trade as the sum of all countries’ exports at constant prices.

Retrieved on
September 22, 2025
Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0212610918000216
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.
Federico, G., & Tena-Junguito, A. (2019). World trade, 1800-1938: A new synthesis. Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 37(1), 9–41. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0212610918000216

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
Notes on our processing step for this indicator

We combined historical trade data from Federico and Tena-Junguito (2019) (up to 1950) with World Trade Organization (WTO) data (after 1950). We re-indexed the Federico and Tena-Junguito series, originally expressed relative to 1913 = 100, so that 1800 = 1. We then rescaled the WTO index, originally set to 1950 = 100, using the 1950 overlap to align it with this 1800 = 1 scale. This ensures both series are presented consistently on the same baseline.

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

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: Growth of global trade”, part of the following publication: Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, Bertha Rohenkohl, Veronika Samborska, Simon Van Teutem, Diana Beltekian, and Max Roser (2018) - “Trade and Globalization”. Data adapted from World Trade Organization, Federico and Tena-Junguito. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261023-095720/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.html [online resource] (archived on October 23, 2026).

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:

World Trade Organization (2026); Federico and Tena-Junguito (2019) – with major processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Trade Organization (2026); Federico and Tena-Junguito (2019) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Growth of global trade – Federico and Tena-Junguito; WTO” [dataset]. World Trade Organization, “Evolution of trade under the WTO: handy statistics”; Federico and Tena-Junguito, “Federico-Tena World Trade Historical Database” [original data]. Retrieved October 23, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261023-095720/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.html (archived on October 23, 2026).

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Data URL (CSV format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false
Metadata URL (JSON format)
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false

Code examples

Examples of how to load this data into different data analysis tools.

Excel / Google Sheets
=IMPORTDATA("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Python with Pandas
import pandas as pd
import requests

# Fetch the data.
df = pd.read_csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", storage_options = {'User-Agent': 'Our World In Data data fetch/1.0'})

# Fetch the metadata
metadata = requests.get("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false").json()
R
library(jsonlite)

# Fetch the data
df <- read.csv("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")

# Fetch the metadata
metadata <- fromJSON("https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Stata
import delimited "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", encoding("utf-8") clear