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Data

Share of agriculture in total employment

About this data

Source
Herrendorf et al. and Groningen Growth and Development Centre (2015) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
October 4, 2023
Date range
1801–2015
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Herrendorf et al. and Groningen Growth and Development Centre – Share of agriculture in GDP at current prices

For Belgium, Spain, France, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, and the USA, observations in this dataset correspond to the data published by Herrendorf, Rogerson, and Valentinyi (2014), except in some cases where we have updated observation using new releases of the same underlying data sources. The most important update corresponds to the 2015 release of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre's (GGDC) 10-sector database. However, some other country-specific updates were also considered (e.g. US data published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis). In the attached documentation we describe sources and updates, country by country.

For the rest of the countries, data comes directly from the 2015 release of the GGDC 10-sector database. The only change we applied to the GGDC 10-sector database was dropping observations for GDP shares in Peru 1950–1985 (these are reported as negative in the original).

Retrieved on
March 8, 2017
Retrieved from
http://www.rug.nl/ggdc/productivity/10-sector/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Our World in Data (Nicolas Lippolis) based on: (i) Berthold Herrendorf, Richard Rogerson and Akos Valentinyi (2014) – "Growth and Structural Transformation", Handbook of Economic Growth Vol. 2B; (ii) 2015 release of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre's (GGDC) 10-sector database.

For Belgium, Spain, France, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, and the USA, observations in this dataset correspond to the data published by Herrendorf, Rogerson, and Valentinyi (2014), except in some cases where we have updated observation using new releases of the same underlying data sources. The most important update corresponds to the 2015 release of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre's (GGDC) 10-sector database. However, some other country-specific updates were also considered (e.g. US data published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis). In the attached documentation we describe sources and updates, country by country.

For the rest of the countries, data comes directly from the 2015 release of the GGDC 10-sector database. The only change we applied to the GGDC 10-sector database was dropping observations for GDP shares in Peru 1950–1985 (these are reported as negative in the original).

Retrieved on
March 8, 2017
Retrieved from
http://www.rug.nl/ggdc/productivity/10-sector/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Our World in Data (Nicolas Lippolis) based on: (i) Berthold Herrendorf, Richard Rogerson and Akos Valentinyi (2014) – "Growth and Structural Transformation", Handbook of Economic Growth Vol. 2B; (ii) 2015 release of the Groningen Growth and Development Centre's (GGDC) 10-sector database.

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Share of agriculture in total employment”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Herrendorf et al. and Groningen Growth and Development Centre. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/share-of-agriculture-in-total-employment.html [online resource] (archived on May 11, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Herrendorf et al. and Groningen Growth and Development Centre (2015) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Herrendorf et al. and Groningen Growth and Development Centre (2015) – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of agriculture in total employment” [dataset]. Herrendorf et al. and Groningen Growth and Development Centre, “Share of agriculture in GDP at current prices” [original data]. Retrieved May 11, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/share-of-agriculture-in-total-employment.html (archived on May 11, 2026).

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