Commerce international

After five years of steady growth, world services exports reached $9.7 trillion in 2025, marking an 8.3% increase over the last year and almost doubling over the last ten years.

In 2025, services exports represented one third (33%) of total exports of goods and services in developed economies and one fifth (20%) in developing economies. These shares have increased over the last ten years, especially in developed economies, where the share has risen by 5 percentage points, as compared to a rise of 3 percentage points in developing economies. 

With almost $1.2 trillion worth of services exports in 2025, the United States of America remained the world leading exporter by a large margin, capturing some 13% of the global market. It was followed, at some distance, by the United Kingdom ($718 billion). Ireland ($565 billion) was on the third rank.

China, the leading exporter among developing economies, ranked fifth globally ($508 billion). All top five services exporters from the developing world were Asian. They captured 17% of the global market in 2025 and accounted for 57% of developing economies' total services exports.

The world leading importers remained the United States of America ($910 billion) and China ($624 billion).

Developing economies, as a group, are moving towards the Sustainable Development Goal of raising their market share in world services exports. However, excluding their five leading exporters from the analysis paints a gloomier picture. Many developing economies lost market share over the last decade.

Digitally deliverable and knowledge-intensive services – such as financial, telecommunications, computer, professional, technical, audio-visual, or intellectual property related services – were boosted during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely driven by the rapid advancement of information technology and use of artificial intelligence. Those services enjoyed more rapid growth in recent years than transport and travel on which many developing economies traditionally rely. 

In 2025, Northern Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the highest relative growth of services exports, among the regions of the world, amounting to 15.5% and 10.4%, respectively.  Northern Africa witnessed another year of recovery of tourism, with international travel receipts rising by 22.6%.