Statizoid

Import product diversification index by country

The diversification index signals whether the structure of imports by product of a given country or group of countries differ from the structure of product of the world. Diversification index that ranges from 0 to 1 reveals the extent of the differences between the structure of trade of the country or country...

Countries reporting
53
Highest
0.871
Liberia
Lowest
0.3156
South Africa
Median
0.5049
Years covered
17
1995–2011
Data points
935

What the numbers show

Import product diversification index is currently reported for 53 countries. The highest value is 0.871 in Liberia; the lowest is 0.3156 in South Africa.

The median across all reporting countries is 0.5049, and the mean is 0.5056.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 3.

Over the past decade 27 countries rose and 26 fell. The largest increase was in Namibia (up 46.3%), and the largest decrease in Equatorial Guinea (down 19.8%).

Import product diversification index: full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 Liberia 0.871 2011 down 0.4% falling
2 Somalia 0.6396 2011 down 2.0% flat
3 Sierra Leone 0.6296 2011 down 2.7% rising
4 Gambia 0.6075 2011 up 10.9% rising
5 Benin 0.5993 2011 up 11.0% rising
6 Eswatini 0.5955 2011 up 31.9% rising
7 Namibia 0.5851 2011 up 46.3% rising
8 Togo 0.5777 2011 up 2.7% rising
9 Guinea-Bissau 0.5776 2011 up 11.1% rising
10 Seychelles 0.5688 2011 down 6.4% rising
11 Mauritania 0.566 2011 up 11.9% rising
12 Eritrea 0.5402 2011 up 10.3% flat
13 Comoros 0.5387 2011 up 1.2% rising
14 Lesotho 0.5341 2011 down 8.1% rising
15 Cape Verde 0.5316 2011 up 11.3% flat
16 Congo 0.5312 2011 up 8.2% flat
17 Malawi 0.5282 2011 up 10.4% rising
18 Central African Republic 0.5248 2011 up 11.4% rising
19 Mali 0.5208 2011 down 0.2% flat
20 Guinea 0.5207 2011 up 2.7% rising
21 Niger 0.5194 2011 down 4.6% flat
22 Djibouti 0.5169 2011 up 2.3% falling
23 Madagascar 0.5164 2011 up 15.7% rising
24 Sudan 0.5119 2011 up 14.8% flat
25 Burkina Faso 0.5119 2011 up 1.4% rising
26 Cote d'Ivoire 0.5061 2011 down 3.4% flat
27 Burundi 0.5049 2011 up 5.7% rising
28 Ethiopia 0.5033 2011 up 3.1% rising
29 Sao Tome and Principe 0.4984 2011 down 15.3% flat
30 Tanzania 0.4977 2011 up 15.3% rising
31 Algeria 0.4835 2011 up 0.9% rising
32 Mozambique 0.4788 2011 down 5.5% rising
33 Equatorial Guinea 0.4785 2011 down 19.8% falling
34 Zimbabwe 0.477 2011 down 2.4% rising
35 Cameroon 0.475 2011 down 9.1% flat
36 Gabon 0.4735 2011 up 10.4% rising
37 Rwanda 0.4729 2011 down 6.5% falling
38 Chad 0.4707 2011 down 12.9% flat
39 Botswana 0.4681 2011 up 16.0% rising
40 Uganda 0.4645 2011 down 1.9% flat
41 Ghana 0.4644 2011 up 10.8% falling
42 Libya 0.4619 2011 down 1.4% rising
43 Angola 0.4605 2011 down 15.4% flat
44 Zambia 0.4575 2011 up 5.3% rising
45 Democratic Republic of Congo 0.455 2011 down 12.3% flat
46 Senegal 0.4403 2011 up 5.9% flat
47 Nigeria 0.4292 2011 down 3.8% rising
48 Egypt 0.3951 2011 down 10.6% falling
49 Kenya 0.3946 2011 down 9.3% flat
50 Tunisia 0.3882 2011 down 1.0% flat
51 Mauritius 0.3828 2011 down 14.3% falling
52 Morocco 0.3324 2011 down 15.5% falling
53 South Africa 0.3156 2011 down 4.9% falling

Regions and income groups

Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.

About this data

Indicator
Import product diversification index
Source
UNCTAD Statistical Office, also reported in the UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics, various issues (http://unctadstat.unctad.org/)
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage
55 places, 935 data points, 1995–2011
Last refreshed

The diversification index signals whether the structure of imports by product of a given country or group of countries differ from the structure of product of the world. Diversification index that ranges from 0 to 1 reveals the extent of the differences between the structure of trade of the country or country group and the world average. The index value closer to 1 indicates a bigger difference from the world average. It is constructed as the inverse of a Herfindahl index, using disaggregated exports at 4 digits (following the STIC3). This index is a modified Finger-Kreinin measure of similarity in trade. For more information, please consult the article of Finger, J. M. and M. E. Kreinin (1979), “A measure of ‘export similarity’ and its possible uses” in the Economic Journal , 89: 905-12.