GDP per Worker

Revised data for 2006 (based on the current purchasing power parity (PPP) approach) continues to show the UK’s productivity performance, on a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per worker basis, as lower than that of the US and France, similar to that of Canada, Germany and Italy, and above that of Japan.

UK productivity in 2006, as measured by GDP per worker, was behind that of the average of the other G7 countries. The USA continues to be the productivity leader with productivity 28 per cent above that of the UK. The productivity performance of Canada, Germany and Italy was the same as that of the UK. Differences of a few percentage points between the productivity estimates for individual countries should not be seen as significant and so the 2006 figures suggest that the UK has similar levels of productivity as that of Canada, Germany and Italy.

Revisions to the data covering the period 1990 to 2005 are also included in this release. The revisions to the G7 countries are larger in magnitude than normal and are mainly the result of revisions to PPP data, caused by the latest round of the OECD-Eurostat triennial benchmarking exercise, revisions to the US implicit GDP deflator and revisions undertaken by Eurostat.

Also published today are estimates of international comparisons of GDP per hour worked. As with GDP per worker, users are advised to allow a margin of error of a few percentage points when making comparisons across countries.

Revised data for 2006 shows that the ranking of countries, on a GDP per hour worked basis, is broadly unchanged. The UK is ahead of Japan, similar to Canada and Italy but behind Germany, the US and France.

Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS)