What share of each economy consists of extracting natural capital, and which resources it comes from. 186 countries, 1990 to 2021.
Source: World Bank World Development Indicators. A resource rent is the difference between what a commodity sells for and what it costs to extract — the surplus available to whoever controls the resource. Expressed as a share of GDP, it measures how much of an economy consists of drawing down natural capital rather than producing goods and services. The five components sum to the total. Figures track commodity prices as much as extraction volumes, so a country's rents can halve in a year without a single well closing. The series ends in 2021.
A resource rent is the difference between what a commodity sells for and what it costs to extract. It is the surplus that exists because the resource was there, not because anyone produced it.
Expressed as a share of GDP, it measures how much of an economy consists of drawing down natural capital rather than creating value. A country with rents at 30% of GDP is, in a meaningful accounting sense, consuming its balance sheet.
This is why the measure appears in a sustainability collection rather than only an economic one. Standard national accounts treat the sale of a barrel of oil as income. Resource rents show how much of that “income” is really the liquidation of an asset.
High resource rents correlate with weaker institutions, slower diversification and more conflict. The literature calls it the resource curse, and it is among the more robust findings in development economics — though the mechanism remains contested.
Several explanations compete. Rents accrue to whoever controls the resource, which reduces a government’s need to tax and therefore its accountability to citizens. Commodity earnings raise the exchange rate and make other exports uncompetitive. And a concentrated, immobile prize invites capture, whether by incumbents or insurgents.
Read this map alongside the governance indicators. The relationship is visible, and it is not subtle.
It is not deterministic. Norway, Botswana and Chile are the standard counterexamples, and what distinguishes them is generally held to be the quality of institutions in place before the resources were developed — which suggests the curse operates through governance rather than around it.
Rents track prices, not just extraction. A country’s figure can halve in a year without a single well closing, because the commodity price fell. The 2015 and 2020 dips visible across oil producers are price collapses, not production cuts.
The denominator moves too. Rents are a share of GDP, so a country whose non-resource economy grows will show falling rents even with constant extraction. That is usually the desired outcome, and it looks identical to a price crash on this map.
The components sum to the total. Switching between them shows what a country’s dependence actually consists of — an economy at 20% from minerals faces different pressures from one at 20% from oil, since mineral prices, extraction economics and political dynamics all differ.
The series ends in 2021. The World Bank has not published later figures. Given the commodity price movements since, current values in some countries will differ substantially.
Related work:
Data from the World Bank World Development Indicators.