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Growth of global trade

See all data and research on:
Trade & Globalization
Data sources and processing
Insights about this data
Data sources and processingRelated articlesRelated charts
Insights about this dataRelated articlesRelated charts

What you should know about this indicator

  • The volume of world trade measures the goods that countries export and import across borders. To compare trade over time, researchers calculate an index that averages exports and imports and sets 1913 as the baseline year (equal to 100). This allows us to track how global trade has changed over time.
  • One of the most important developments of the last century has been the integration of national economies into a global economic system. This indicator helps us see how trade has grown and how deeply connected the world’s economies have become since 1800.
  • This data is expressed as a world trade volume index, with all figures relative to 1913 = 100.
  • Federico & Tena-Junguito (2016) assembled trade statistics from hundreds of sources for the period up to 1938, covering almost every country and colony from 1800. These estimates are adjusted to 1913 country borders.
  • 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.
  • From 1950 onwards, we extend the series using data from the World Trade Organization (WTO). Because the WTO index was originally set to 1950 = 100, we rescaled it to 1913 = 100, so that the historical and current series are on the same scale.
Growth of global trade
World trade volume index, based on the average of exports and imports, adjusted for inflation and expressed relative to 1913 = 100.
Source
World Trade Organization (2024); Federico and Tena-Junguito (2016) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
September 22, 2025
Next expected update
September 2026
Date range
1800–2024
Unit
index 1913=100

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, Diana Beltekian, and Max Roser

Is globalization an engine of economic development?

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

What you should know about this indicator

  • The volume of world trade measures the goods that countries export and import across borders. To compare trade over time, researchers calculate an index that averages exports and imports and sets 1913 as the baseline year (equal to 100). This allows us to track how global trade has changed over time.
  • One of the most important developments of the last century has been the integration of national economies into a global economic system. This indicator helps us see how trade has grown and how deeply connected the world’s economies have become since 1800.
  • This data is expressed as a world trade volume index, with all figures relative to 1913 = 100.
  • Federico & Tena-Junguito (2016) assembled trade statistics from hundreds of sources for the period up to 1938, covering almost every country and colony from 1800. These estimates are adjusted to 1913 country borders.
  • 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.
  • From 1950 onwards, we extend the series using data from the World Trade Organization (WTO). Because the WTO index was originally set to 1950 = 100, we rescaled it to 1913 = 100, so that the historical and current series are on the same scale.
Growth of global trade
World trade volume index, based on the average of exports and imports, adjusted for inflation and expressed relative to 1913 = 100.
Source
World Trade Organization (2024); Federico and Tena-Junguito (2016) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
September 22, 2025
Next expected update
September 2026
Date range
1800–2024
Unit
index 1913=100

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

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

The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

Retrieved on
September 23, 2025
Retrieved from
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/trade_evolution_e/evolution_trade_wto_e.htm#fnt-1
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: 23 Sept 2025).

The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible.

Retrieved on
September 23, 2025
Retrieved from
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/trade_evolution_e/evolution_trade_wto_e.htm#fnt-1
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: 23 Sept 2025).

Federico and Tena-Junguito – A tale of two globalizations: gains from trade and openness 1800–2010

This paper compares the waves of globalization before the outbreak of the Great Recession in 2007 with its alleged historical antecedent before the outbreak of World War One. We describe trends in trade and openness, investigate the proximate causes of changes in openness and estimate the gains from trade from the early nineteenth century onwards. Our results suggest that the conventional wisdom has to be revised. The first wave of globalization started around 1820 and culminated around 1870. In the next century, trade continued to grow, with the exception of the Great Depression, but openness and gains fluctuated widely. They resumed a clear upward trend from the early 1970s. By 2007, the world was more open than a century earlier and its inhabitants gained from trade substantially more than their ancestors did.

Retrieved on
September 22, 2025
Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10290-017-0279-z
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. (2016). A tale of two globalizations: Gains from trade and openness 1800–2010 (Working Papers in Economic History No. 16-02).

This paper compares the waves of globalization before the outbreak of the Great Recession in 2007 with its alleged historical antecedent before the outbreak of World War One. We describe trends in trade and openness, investigate the proximate causes of changes in openness and estimate the gains from trade from the early nineteenth century onwards. Our results suggest that the conventional wisdom has to be revised. The first wave of globalization started around 1820 and culminated around 1870. In the next century, trade continued to grow, with the exception of the Great Depression, but openness and gains fluctuated widely. They resumed a clear upward trend from the early 1970s. By 2007, the world was more open than a century earlier and its inhabitants gained from trade substantially more than their ancestors did.

Retrieved on
September 22, 2025
Retrieved from
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10290-017-0279-z
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. (2016). A tale of two globalizations: Gains from trade and openness 1800–2010 (Working Papers in Economic History No. 16-02).

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 & Tena-Junguito (2016) (up to 1950) with World Trade Organization data (from 1951 onwards). The WTO index, originally set to 1950 = 100, was rescaled to 1913 = 100 using the 1950 overlap as the conversion factor. This allows the two series to be 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, Diana Beltekian, and Max Roser (2018) - “Trade and Globalization”. Data adapted from World Trade Organization, Federico and Tena-Junguito. Retrieved from https://auto-epoch.owid.pages.dev:8789/20250926-094359/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.html [online resource] (archived on September 26, 2025).

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 (2024); Federico and Tena-Junguito (2016) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Trade Organization (2024); Federico and Tena-Junguito (2016) – processed by Our World in Data. “Growth of global trade” [dataset]. World Trade Organization, “Evolution of trade under the WTO: handy statistics”; Federico and Tena-Junguito, “A tale of two globalizations: gains from trade and openness 1800–2010” [original data]. Retrieved November 2, 2025 from https://auto-epoch.owid.pages.dev:8789/20250926-094359/grapher/growth-of-global-trade.html (archived on September 26, 2025).