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Data for 1981

Total Factor Productivity Level, 1981

1981, as GGDC’s 2025 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Total factor productivity measures how much output an economy gets from its capital, its workers and their schooling, compared with the United States in the same year. A level of 0.5 means the country produces about half what the US would with the same inputs. It is the Penn World Table's best-known measure, and the standard way economists compare how efficiently countries use what they have.

Total Factor Productivity Level, 1981 covers 105 countries. Bulgaria is highest, at 2.51917; China is lowest, at 0.18734. The middle country reads 0.83098. Against 1980, 104 values changed (34 up, 70 down), the same countries are covered.

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Total Factor Productivity Level · Data for 1981

HighestBulgaria

2.51917

LowestChina

0.18734

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

01Values only

The table

Every country and every column of Total Factor Productivity Level, 1981, as published. The file carries values only, so no position is shown. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 105 countries · select a heading to sort

Total Factor Productivity Level, 1981: every country, as published by Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC).
BulgariaBGREastern Europe2.51917
EgyptEGYNorthern Africa1.81470
Trinidad and TobagoTTOCaribbean1.52985
MexicoMEXCentral America1.50435
MauritiusMUSEastern Africa1.49077
MacauMACEastern Asia1.25073
ZimbabweZWEEastern Africa1.23812
KuwaitKWTWestern Asia1.22717
Saudi ArabiaSAUWestern Asia1.21430
MaltaMLTSouthern Europe1.21108
ItalyITASouthern Europe1.18759
Sierra LeoneSLEWestern Africa1.15819
IcelandISLNorthern Europe1.15535
NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe1.13893
BelgiumBELWestern Europe1.13308
QatarQATWestern Asia1.11880
FranceFRAWestern Europe1.10109
NicaraguaNICCentral America1.09803
EcuadorECUSouth America1.09571
IraqIRQWestern Asia1.09461
PortugalPRTSouthern Europe1.08794
GabonGABMiddle Africa1.08584
Hong KongHKGEastern Asia1.07072
TürkiyeTURWestern Asia1.05393
SpainESPSouthern Europe1.04536

02In 1981

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. Bulgaria2.51917
  2. Egypt1.81470
  3. Trinidad and Tobago1.52985
  4. Mexico1.50435
  5. Mauritius1.49077

Lowest

  1. China0.18734
  2. Burundi0.28228
  3. India0.30359
  4. Mongolia0.32002
  5. Bolivia0.35555

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 0.83098. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031980 → 1981

Since 1980

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 104values changed, of 105 in both
  • 34 · 70rose · fell
  • 1unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

  • Kuwait1.49714 → 1.22717−0.26997
  • Iraq1.32812 → 1.09461−0.23351
  • Singapore0.95054 → 0.82165−0.12889
  • Gabon1.19979 → 1.08584−0.11395
  • Fiji0.99549 → 0.90848−0.08701

04Caveats

Read before you use

How values are stored

  • One year of the 2025 release

    Every year in this series comes from GGDC’s 2025 release, recalculated on one method, so a change from one year to the next is not a revision. It can differ from what was first published for 1981.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 105 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped to one row per country, with its ISO code; no value recalculated, rescaled or rounded. In full

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) (1981). Total Factor Productivity Level, 1981 [data set], describing 1981. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/total-factor-productivity/1981

0654 held

Other years