UK Manufacturing Statistics

Below is an overview of UK Manufacturing Statistics. Despite the decline since the 1970s, when manufacturing contributed 25% of UK GDP, the UK is currently the ninth largest manufacturing nation in the world.

Overall, the UK’s industrial sector has increased by 1.4% a year since 1948, according to a recent report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS attributes the sustained growth to a better quality; more skilled workforce; a shift in production from low to high productivity goods; improvements in automation and technology; increased investment in R&D, and a more integrated global economy. One of the most critical UK manufacturing statistics is the total value of UK manufacturers’ product sales, which was £396.6bn in 2019, a fall of 1.2% compared with £401.4bn in 2018.

UK Manufacturing Statistics according to Make UK (formerly EEF), UK manufacturing currently:

• employs 2.7 million people – earning an average of £32,500
• contributes 11% of GVA
• accounts for 45% of total exports – totalling £275bn
• represents 69% of business research and development (R&D)
• provides 13% of business investment

Although the contribution of manufacturing to GDP has declined on paper, many of the services provided to manufacturers which would have once been considered part of manufacturing – such as catering; cleaning; building services; security; logistics and so on – are now allocated into different areas of the economy.

However, those contributions are directly reliant on manufacturing for continued business and could actually be considered as a part of manufacturing’s GDP input. As such, many are calling for the true value of manufacturing to be recognised, a move which would see the widely cited figure of 10% of GVA more than doubling to 23% and would greatly impact the overall UK manufacturing statistics.

UK Balance of Trade:

(source: tradingeconomics.com)

UK Manufacturing Statistics by sector:

British Aerospace at a glance

• 128,000+ direct jobs // 140,000 indirect jobs
• £31bn annual turnover
• 30% productivity growth in the past five years
• 39% growth since 2010
• 18% global market share – largest in Europe and second globally to the US
• 90% of turnover to export markets – worth £26bn
• Almost a decade’s worth of work in hand, with an order book of more than 13,000 aircraft worth up to £195bn to the UK

(Information courtesy of www.adsgroup.org.uk)

British Automotive at a glance

• 169,000+ direct jobs // 78,000 employed across UK supply chain
• 25,000 new jobs to be created to cover the production of connected and autonomous vehicles
• 2,000+ automotive suppliers in the UK – including 18 of world’s top 20
• £71.6bn annual turnover
• 80% of a vehicle can be manufactured in the UK
• Annually adds £12.4+bn to the UK economy
• Annually producing £34.3bn of exports – accounting for 12% of the UK’s total export goods

(Information courtesy of www.smmt.co.uk)

British Chemical & Pharmaceutical at a glance

• 105,000 (Chemical) and 53,000 (Pharmaceutical) direct jobs // 500,000 indirect jobs
• 30,000 employed in related R&D (7,000 – Chemical, and 23,000 – Pharmaceutical)
• Annually adds £15.2bn to the UK economy
• Adds £60m to the UK balance of trade every day
• UK’s largest manufacturing export sector (£24.7bn – Chemical and £20.7bn – Pharmaceutical)
• CIA members have a combined turnover of £50bn

(Information courtesy of www.cia.org.uk)

British Construction at a glance

• 1m direct jobs // annually provides upwards of 80,000 new job opportunities
• Employs just under 200,000 women in the sector
• Annually adds £92bn+ to the UK economy – represents 6,4% of the total economic output
• 35+% of construction employees run their own companies
• More than a quarter of employers have recruited a school leaver in the past 2-3 years
• Almost 50% of employers in the building services engineering industry take part in the modern apprenticeship scheme

(Information courtesy of www.cic.org.uk)

British Defence at a glance

• 142,000 direct employees // Almost the same number in indirect jobs
• Employs 4,300+ apprentices and trainees
• £24bn annual turnover
• 18% growth since 2010
• The UK is the world’s second biggest defence exporter behind the US, generating an average of £7,7bn for the UK every year
• 34% export growth between 2009 – 2013
• 9,000+ defence companies including SMEs exist in the UK
• BAE Systems – the UK’s largest defence company – currently employs 40,000 domestically

(Information courtesy of www.adsgroup.org.uk)

British Electronics at a glance

• 800,000+ direct jobs
• £78bn annual turnover
• 95%+ of the sectors 6,000 businesses are SMEs
• UK Electronics is the world’s fifth largest in terms of production
• 14 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies have established design and/or manufacturing sites in the UK
• In semiconductors, almost 80% of the activity comes from foreign direct investment

(Information courtesy of www.techuk.org)

British Energy at a glance

• 137,000 direct jobs // 500,000 indirect jobs
• Annually adds £5.5bn to the UK economy
• The energy sector reduced its carbon emissions by 13% in 2015
• Generation output from renewable sources increased by 30% from 2014 to 2015
• Invested £18bn in infrastructure, generation, distribution, metering and customer service during 2015

(Information courtesy of www.energy-uk.org.uk)

British Food & Drink at a glance

• 400,000 direct jobs – predicted to need almost 110,000 new recruits by 2022
• Annually adds £21.9bn to the UK economy
• Accounts for 16% of total UK manufacturing turnover – making it the largest sector
• Productivity has increased by 11% over the past five years
• 96% of the sector’s 6,360 businesses are micro to medium-sized
• Exports worth £12.8bn a year – 77% of which go to the EU

(Information courtesy of www.fdf.org.uk)

British Nuclear at a glance

• 63,000+ direct jobs // 80,000+ indirect jobs
• Companies in the UK nuclear industry have the capability to provide 80+% of the work involved in new nuclear power station projects
• 16 reactors on nine sites currently supplies 19% of the UK’s electricity
• Over the next two decades, it is forecast that globally there will be £930bn investment in constructing new reactors and £250bn in decommissioning those coming off-line
• There are currently 15 operational reactors across the UK

(Information courtesy of www.niauk.org)

British Plastics at a glance

• 170,000+ direct jobs
• £23.5bn annual turnover
• 6,200 companies in the sector
• 35% of manufactured plastics products exported – valued at £6.7bn
• 1.7m tonnes of plastics materials produced annually – 3.3m tonnes of plastics materials recylced

(Information courtesy of www.bpf.co.uk)

British Security at a glance

• 76,0,00 direct jobs
• £9bn annual turnover
• 65% growth since 2010
• The UK is the world’s sixth largest exporter of security equipment
• Average exports worth £2.9bn to the UK
• Benefits include national infrastructure; cyber security; policing and counter-terrorism; border security, and major event security.

(Information courtesy of www.adsgroup.org.uk)

British Steel at a glance

• 30,000 direct jobs
• 54% of UK Steel workers work in Yorkshire and the Humber, or Wales
• Annually adds £9.5bn to the UK economy
• Exports worth £4.9bn in 2013
• 1m tonnes of output in 2014
• The value of the industry has declined by almost a quarter (24%) since 1990
• More waste steel is recovered in the UK and recycled than all other materials combined
• Each tonne of scrap recycled by the industry saves 1.9 tonnes of iron ore and 0.6 tonnes of coal

(Information courtesy of www.eef.org.uk/uksteel)

British Space at a glance

• 34,000+ direct jobs // 72,000+ indirect jobs
• £11bn annual turnover
• Growing at more than 8% a year
• Exports worth ££4bn to the UK
• Achieved 27% growth since 2010
• Largest application is broadcasting, followed by telecommunications
• Services support disaster relief; telemedicine; navigation, and broadcasting

(Information courtesy of www.adsgroup.org.uk)

British Textile at a glance

• 340,000+ direct jobs across 79,000+ companies
• Annually adds £11.5bn+ to the UK economy
• Gross value added (GVA) per head measured at an average of £34,220
• Third-largest fashion employer in the EU – behind Italy and Germany
• British consumers spend annually almost £55bn on the high street

(Information courtesy of www.fashionunited.co.uk)