Useful, timely and validated figures on the size of the market might be difficult to find. To determine the size of a foreign market, it is recommended to go to the relevant national statistical agency. Look here for a list of statistical agencies.
Many statistical agencies publish detailed statements, but often foreign trade and production statistics are compiled according to different classifications (nomenclatures). Furthermore, many international statistical publications are less detailed on the product side than those from national statistical sources. Thus, calculations of the size of the market through these publications, will typically be based on somewhat less detailed product classifications or at the industry level.
A database that meets the requirements to use the same nomenclature for both import, export and production of goods that makes it possible to calculate the sale or supply, is Eurostat´s database EUROPROMS. See below.
A few other statistic providers such as FAO also use the same nomenclature for production and foreign trade statistics, but it only covers agricultural products.
To read a description of the nomenclatures used for the statistics:
DATABASE |
CONTENT |
GUIDES & HELP |
COMEXT / EUROSTAT |
International trade: (External trade detailed data) Eurostats Comext database with detailed data on the EU countries' foreign trade by trade partners, and 2,4,6 and 8-digit HS / CN and SITC product group codes. Data are published monthly and for each product there is data on the value (in Euros) and quantity (tonnes) |
Export of Data:
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Prodcom - Europroms / Eurostat (European Union) |
Production. Statistics on the production of manufactured goods: Comaparative data on production in EU countries of approx. 3500 products according to the PRODCOM classification. It also contains data on import and export according to PRODCOM, so it is possible to estimate the market supply.
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Export of Data: |
Market access Database / European Commission |
International trade: Contains a "Statistical database" with tables on the EU´s trade flows in goods with the rest of the world by HS and CN classifications. The site also contains country profiles covering general aspects of trade policy, trade barriers, applied tariffs, etc. |
Export of Data:
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OECD - International trade by commodities / OECD |
International trade: |
Export of data:
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OECD - Main Economic Indicators |
Economic indicators Reports total value (in national currencies) of among other things imports and exports for OECD countries. |
Export of data: |
OECD - Monthly Statistics of International Trade. |
International trade: For OECD member countries, provides exports & imports of broad commodity categories and exports & imports by trading partner countries. Values in U.S. dollars with conversion tables for national currencies. Monthly, quarterly, & annual data. Earliest data is 1955. |
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OECD Statistics on International Trade in Services |
International trade - services: Annual report of data on service trade, investment, intellectual property income and comparisons to total merchandise trade |
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International trade and tariff data / WTO |
International trade and tariff data: International trade statistics by commodities and regions. |
Where to find WTO trade and tariff data |
International trade statistics / International Trade Centre (UN og WTO) |
International trade: Here it is possible to run reports that show all countries' trade on a single commodity code or a single country´s trade on all items. Annual data on 2- or 4- digit HS codes.
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Commodity trade statistics database (Comtrade) / United Nations (UN Comtrade) |
International trade: Annual data on import/export from around the word in HS- or SITC nomenclatures. Alternatively, a link with data from 1988, http://data.un.org/browse.aspx?d=ComTrade
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International trade: Statistics on international trade in goods and services. |
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Industrial Commodity Statistics Database / United Nations |
Industrial production: Contains data on industrial production by ISIC industry codes. |
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) |
International trade - agriculture: Here it is possible to search all of FAO´s statistical databases with annual data on trade in agricultural-, fishery- and forest products worldwide, as well as production of crop and animal products. |
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World trade indicators / World Bank |
International trade and trade policies: This database allows you to compare and rank countries´ trade policies. Approximately 200 countries are assesed in respect to trade barriers and incentives |
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World Development Indicators |
International trade: If looking for totals and not bilateral trade or trade by the specific commodity, then start with World Development Indicators. It includes some large regional breakdowns as well as broad breakdowns for areas such as goods and services, arms, fuel, and agricultural raw materials. Be careful regarding how each variable is measured. |
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UN Service Trade |
International trade - Service: Coverage: 2000+. The current scope of UN ServiceTrade is resident to non-resident trade in services and some related data series, broken down by EBOPS category and partner country on an annual basis. Free registration is required. |
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Services Trade Restrictions Database. |
International trade - services and trade policies: World Bank database that provides comparable information on services trade policy measures for 103 countries, 5 sectors (telecommunications, finance, transportation, retail and professional services) and key modes of delivery. |
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Trade Costs Database (World Bank) |
International trade (bilateral trade costs) Provides estimates of bilateral trade costs in agriculture and manufactured goods for the 1995-2010 period. It is built on trade and production data collected in 178 countries. Symmetric bilateral trade costs are computed using the Inverse Gravity Framework (Novy 2009), which estimates trade costs for each country pair using bilateral trade and gross national output. |
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Statista |
Statistical, market and consumer behavior data as well as quantitative research and analyses dealing with media, business, finance, politics etc. Covers approximately 60,000 topics pulled from 18.000 sources and broken down into 21 categories. Sources include market reports, trade and scholarly journals, and much more. Statista data are global in scope and are pulled from public sources such as the World Bank, the US Census Bureau, and the International Monetary Fund, as well as from “protected” sources via press releases etc. Contents are sorted into the following categories: Statistics, Studies, Dossiers & Industry Reports, Topics, and Infographics Source description: Each statistical entry is accompanied by detailed background information, including source, date of publication, methodology, and keywords. Statista in German and English: Statista is a German product and as such contains huge amounts of very detailed information on Germany and the German market. Contents are not the same across the two databases so if you are specifically looking for data on Germany and not Europe as a whole, you might want to consider starting out in the German database, and of course using German keywords! |
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