Ever since the publication of The Ocean Economy to 2030 in 2016, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has worked to improve understanding of the ocean’s contribution to human wellbeing and prosperity and the effects that society’s use of the ocean has on the marine environment. This book, the inaugural in a series of biennial publications called The Ocean Economy at a Glance, represents the next step in the OECD’s mission to provide evidence to improve ocean policies for better lives.
Fishing and aquaculture harvest food from the sea. Offshore platforms extract oil, gas and minerals. Offshore wind farms and desalination plants produce electricity and fresh water. Shipyards and their suppliers build and equip the maritime fleet. Ships and ports carry goods and passengers across the globe, while coastal destinations receive visitors for leisure and recreation. Wholesalers and retailers distribute ocean goods. Teaching and research build knowledge of the ocean. These economic activities make up the ocean economy and all impact upon ocean and coastal environments in the process.
Most ocean economic activities are not separately identified in official statistics, making it difficult to assess their size, growth and productivity or compare them across countries and over time. The same challenge applies to measuring the science and knowledge that underpin these activities and inform ocean policy.
The OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation works to address these measurement gaps and strengthen the evidence base for informed ocean management and governance in close collaboration with OECD Members and partner economies.
This publication presents the latest round of the OECD’s experimental ocean economy statistics and new ocean science and policy indicators. The statistics cover every corner of the world for each year 1995 to 2025 and measure gross value added in current prices and in real terms, employment in full-time equivalents and labour productivity. Additional sources include bibliographic databases as well as ocean science, technology and innovation policies from the EC-OECD STIP Compass.
This publication attempts to provide the best evidence available to policymakers for comparing the development of ocean economic activities across economies and over time on one consistent basis. It also lays the foundation for a new generation of innovative OECD indicators, helping countries to improve ocean management and governance and to build the robust, internationally comparable evidence needed to guide the ocean economy towards a productive, sustainable and resilient future.