UK manufacturing: The facts – £191bn output, 2.7 million jobs & 53% of exports

Posted on 15 Sep 2020 by Tom Lane

Make UK and Santander have released their annual UK manufacturing fact card for 2020/ 21, which shows that UK manufacturing has retained its position as ninth largest in the world.

Make UK and Santander annual UK manufacturing fact card for 2020/ 21, shows that UK manufacturing has retained its position as ninth largest in the world and tenth in terms of global exports. The exports output totalling £191bn shows growth of 7% over the last five years.

The data also showed that 2.7 million people are employed within the UK manufacturing sector with an average wage of over £34,000 per annum, 13% higher than the average salary in the UK.

The data, captured before the Coronavirus outbreak shows that goods exports (53%) outweighed that of services (47%) while the sector continues to punch above its weight contributing 66% of total UK spend on R&D and 16% of business investment.


Make UK 2020 fact card


Regionally the North West remains the single biggest region in terms of output, London and the South East combined are now significantly the largest, worth some £30.7bn. This is down to the heavy concentration of electronics – worth £4.7bn alone – in the South East which was already benefitting from the drive towards digital technologies and automation, a trend which the pandemic is likely to have accelerated.

The UK’s largest export market is the USA with 54.4bn of manufacturing goods going there every year, the second largest market is Germany with 32.1bn. However, seven out of the top 10 nations the UK export to are within the European Union, totalling 117.4bn. The UK exports 18.3bn a year to China and a further 12bn to Switzerland.

Paul Brooks, UK Head of Manufacturing, Santander UK said: “Retaining our position as the ninth leading manufacturer makes it clear that the UK is still a major player on the international stage, but we must not rest on our laurels. This data underlines the importance of prioritising manufacturing as the UK establishes new trading relationships with partners around the world.”

Click here to view the full fact card 


*Header image courtesy of ShutterStock