UK manufacturing statistics: output, jobs, exports and world ranking

Key figures

• £230bnadded by UK manufacturing in 2024 (gross value added at current prices), 8.9% of the UK total. England accounted for £192bn of it.
• 10ththe UK's place among the world's manufacturing nations in 2024, on UN figures for manufacturing value added in US dollars.
• 2.46mmanufacturing jobs in June 2026, 6.7% of all UK jobs. In 1978 it was 6.7 million, a quarter of all jobs.
• 79%of UK goods exports in 2025 were manufactured goods, £310bn. That is 34% of all UK exports once services are counted.

Output is near a record, jobs are not

UK manufacturing output and manufacturing jobs, 1978 to 2025, both shown as an index where 1978 equals 100.

Output (volume)Jobs

Sources: ONS Index of Production, manufacturing (series K22A, chained volume); ONS Workforce Jobs, manufacturing (series JWR7, June each year). Our index.

Measured in volume, so with price rises taken out, manufacturing output in 2025 was 83% above its 1978 level and close to its highest annual figure, set in 2024. The monthly index reached 102.3 in August 2026, the highest in the series, which starts in 1948. Output fell in the recessions of 1980 and 1981 and 2008 and 2009, and dipped again in 2020, but each time recovered.

Jobs tell the opposite story. Workforce jobs in manufacturing were 6.73 million in 1978, when the series starts, and 2.46 million in June 2026, 63% fewer. The two together mean each manufacturing job now produces far more than it did, which is the main reason output and employment have parted company.

How big is manufacturing in the UK economy?

Manufacturing as a share of UK gross value added, current prices, 1998 to 2024.

Source: ONS, Regional gross value added (balanced) by industry, UK current price estimates. Our calculation.

Manufacturing added £230.3 billion in 2024 out of £2.60 trillion across the whole UK economy, 8.9%. In 1998, the first year of this series, the share was 16.0%. The fall is mostly about the rest of the economy growing faster, especially services, rather than manufacturing shrinking: in cash terms manufacturing's value added has risen from £145 billion in 1998.

Manufacturing jobs produce more than the average. In 2024 manufacturing added about £90,133 per job, against £71,015 per job across the whole economy, 27% more. Taking out the rent homeowners are treated as paying themselves, which the national accounts count as output, the gap is larger still.

Where does the UK rank in the world?

The twelve largest manufacturing nations in 2024, manufacturing value added at current prices (US$ billion).

• China4,685
• United States2,881
• Germany830
• Japan821
• South Korea499
• India498
• Mexico364
• Italy353
• France302
• United Kingdom294
• Russia288
• Indonesia265

Source: UN Statistics Division, National Accounts Main Aggregates Database, Manufacturing (ISIC D), current prices in US dollars. Ranked by us. The database does not list Taiwan separately.

The UK was 10th in 2024, with $294 billion, just ahead of Russia and behind France. China makes more than the next three countries combined.

The ranking moves around more than the industry does, because it is measured in US dollars and so swings with the exchange rate. On the same UN figures the UK was 7th in 2015, 9th in 2016 after the fall in the pound, 12th in 2022 and 10th in 2024. Statements that the UK is the "ninth largest manufacturing nation", common in 2016 to 2020, come from industry reports using earlier years and sometimes other sources, so they will not match this table exactly.

Manufacturing and UK exports

The UK exported £310.3 billion of manufactured goods in 2025, 79.5% of all goods exports. Manufactured goods here means everything in the trade classification's chemicals, materials, machinery and transport, and finished goods groups (SITC 5 to 8), which covers almost everything except food, fuel and raw materials.

As a share of all UK exports, goods and services together, manufactured goods were 34.0% in 2025, down from 58.8% in 1997. Services exports have grown much faster.

The EU took 43.8% of UK manufactured exports in 2025, down from 58.7% in 2000. The United States is the largest single market for UK goods.

Jobs, pay and who works in manufacturing

There were 2.46 million manufacturing jobs in June 2026, 6.7% of the 36.7 million jobs in the UK, on the ONS's Workforce Jobs measure, which counts employee jobs and the self-employed.

Manufacturing pays more than the average job, mainly because more of its jobs are full time. The median manufacturing employee earned £38,807 in the year to April 2026, against £34,229 for all employees, 13% more. But 91% of manufacturing jobs are full time, against 72% across the economy. Comparing full-time jobs only, the median in manufacturing was £40,355 and across all employees £40,911, so about the same.

Women hold 24% of manufacturing employee jobs, against 50% of employee jobs overall.

What the UK makes

Food and drink is the largest single part of UK manufacturing. Food, drink and tobacco added £40.2 billion in 2024, 17% of all manufacturing, ahead of cars, aircraft and other transport equipment.

Manufacturing region by region

England produced £192.1 billion of the UK's manufacturing value added in 2024, 83%. The North West has the largest manufacturing sector of any English region, at £32.5 billion. Measured as a share of the local economy, the East Midlands leads, with manufacturing 14.2% of its output, followed by the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber. London, at 2.2%, has the smallest share.

At a finer level, the areas where manufacturing makes up the biggest part of the economy are East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire (23%), Cumbria (21%), Cheshire (20%) and Lancashire (18%). Every region's share has fallen since 1998.

Older figures you may see quoted

Many articles still cite the manufacturing "facts" cards that EEF (now Make UK) published between about 2015 and 2021. Those pages are no longer online. Here is how their headline figures compare with the latest official data.

Some of the difference is real change and some is method. The export share depends on whether services are counted; the world ranking depends on the source and the exchange rate. Where an older article gives a figure, check which measure it used before comparing.