In this chart, I have subtracted total imports from total exports between 2000 and 2023 to calculate each country’s total trade balance for those years. You can see the ten highest trade surpluses and the ten largest trade deficits.
I would also love some feedback on the design to improve my visualization skills! 🙂
The US has more people than Portugal yes.
Per capita would be interesting to see. Those Gulf states got into the top 10 despite small populations.
Give countries a piece of paper that we print and get their real stuff in return.
Is it possible to create a graph of profit earnings from trade? For example, SA’s profit from oil export is close to 100% while for example China’s manufactured goods cost money to produce.
Where would Japan rank on this? I expected them to be up there along Germany
Is this just a list of the world’s twenty largest economies?
Would be interesting to see IP cash flow and other immaterial goods added to the trade of physical goods.
When it’s Olympic medals Americans are all like “USA number one”…
When it’s a negative like trade imbalance Americans are all like “could we get this in per capita”.. “yes the USA is a big country so what”.
This would probably be a lot more useful if it was normalized by capita or gdp….
Not being well versed in global trade, is a trade surplus or deficit measured in the monetary value of imports and exports? Or is there a better definition?
![[OC] Most Skewed Trade Balances Between 2000 and 2023](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/4a27k2gvx7jd1-1920x1024.png)
11 comments
Data source: [https://stats.wto.org/](https://stats.wto.org/)
Tools used: Matplotlib & Canva
In this chart, I have subtracted total imports from total exports between 2000 and 2023 to calculate each country’s total trade balance for those years. You can see the ten highest trade surpluses and the ten largest trade deficits.
If you enjoy this chart, feel free to visit my newsletter at [worldcharts.substack.com](http://worldcharts.substack.com)
I would also love some feedback on the design to improve my visualization skills! 🙂
The US has more people than Portugal yes.
Per capita would be interesting to see. Those Gulf states got into the top 10 despite small populations.
Give countries a piece of paper that we print and get their real stuff in return.
Is it possible to create a graph of profit earnings from trade? For example, SA’s profit from oil export is close to 100% while for example China’s manufactured goods cost money to produce.
Where would Japan rank on this? I expected them to be up there along Germany
Is this just a list of the world’s twenty largest economies?
Would be interesting to see IP cash flow and other immaterial goods added to the trade of physical goods.
When it’s Olympic medals Americans are all like “USA number one”…
When it’s a negative like trade imbalance Americans are all like “could we get this in per capita”.. “yes the USA is a big country so what”.
This would probably be a lot more useful if it was normalized by capita or gdp….
Not being well versed in global trade, is a trade surplus or deficit measured in the monetary value of imports and exports? Or is there a better definition?