International trade reached approximately US$33 trillion in goods and services in 2024. Goods accounted for US$24.8 trillion and services for US$7.8 trillion in the same year, according to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD). These figures provide a useful starting point for understanding the scale, composition, and changing geography of world trade.
Contents
- Global trade totals and composition
- The long-run goods trade picture
- The long-run services trade picture
- What changed in 2024
- Services and digitally deliverable trade
- Developing economies and trade imbalances
Global trade totals and composition
UNCTAD’s Key statistics and trends in international trade 2024 reports global goods trade of US$24.8 trillion in 2024. The comparable goods total was US$24.3 trillion in 2023, US$25.7 trillion in 2022, US$22.6 trillion in 2021, and US$17.9 trillion in 2020. The series shows both the scale of merchandise trade and the pronounced movement across the early-2020s period. UNCTAD, Key statistics and trends in international trade 2024
Services added US$7.8 trillion in 2024, compared with US$7.3 trillion in 2023, US$6.7 trillion in 2022, and US$5.8 trillion in 2021. On the UNCTAD totals, goods remained the larger component, but services represented a substantial and expanding part of cross-border commerce. Together, goods and services reached approximately US$33 trillion in 2024. UNCTAD, Key statistics and trends in international trade 2024
| Measure | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global goods trade | US$22.6tn | US$25.7tn | US$24.3tn | US$24.8tn |
| Global services trade | US$5.8tn | US$6.7tn | US$7.3tn | US$7.8tn |
The totals should not be read as a single measure of economic welfare or domestic production. They describe the value of international transactions in goods and services, and the source series covers specific measurement periods and categories. Goods and services also behave differently: merchandise trade is tied to physical production and shipment, while services include activities that can increasingly be delivered across borders digitally.
The long-run goods trade picture
UNCTAD’s historical series places global goods trade at US$15.4 trillion in 2010. It then measured US$18.4 trillion in 2011, US$18.7 trillion in 2012, US$19.0 trillion in 2013, and US$19.1 trillion in 2014. The 2015 figure was US$16.7 trillion, followed by US$16.2 trillion in 2016 and US$18.0 trillion in 2017.
The subsequent observations were US$19.8 trillion in 2018 and US$19.3 trillion in 2019. The series recorded US$17.9 trillion in 2020, then US$22.6 trillion in 2021, US$25.7 trillion in 2022, US$24.3 trillion in 2023, and US$24.8 trillion in 2024. UNCTAD, Key statistics and trends in international trade 2024
| Year | Global goods trade |
|---|---|
| 2010 | US$15.4 trillion |
| 2014 | US$19.1 trillion |
| 2018 | US$19.8 trillion |
| 2020 | US$17.9 trillion |
| 2022 | US$25.7 trillion |
| 2024 | US$24.8 trillion |
This sequence makes the timing of the major changes explicit. The reported value was below the 2019 level in 2020, above it in 2021, and at its highest listed level in 2022. The 2023 and 2024 observations were lower than 2022, although both remained above the 2019 total in the series.
The long-run services trade picture
Global services trade was US$3.9 trillion in 2010 and US$4.4 trillion in 2011. UNCTAD reports US$4.5 trillion in 2012, US$4.8 trillion in 2013, and US$5.2 trillion in 2014. The total was US$4.9 trillion in 2015 and US$5.0 trillion in 2016, followed by US$5.4 trillion in 2017 and US$5.9 trillion in 2018.
The series reached US$6.1 trillion in 2019, then measured US$5.8 trillion in 2021, US$6.7 trillion in 2022, US$7.3 trillion in 2023, and US$7.8 trillion in 2024. The supplied UNCTAD series does not list a 2020 services total in these observations, so the long-run comparison should retain that gap rather than infer a value. UNCTAD, Key statistics and trends in international trade 2024
The services figures show a different pattern from the goods series in the listed years. Services rose from US$3.9 trillion in 2010 to US$6.1 trillion in 2019, and then reached US$7.8 trillion in 2024. That movement includes both broad commercial services and the growing role of services that can be delivered without a physical shipment crossing a border.
What changed in 2024
The World Trade Organization reported that world merchandise trade volume increased 2.9% in 2024. Merchandise trade value increased 2% to US$24.43 trillion, while world commercial services trade value increased 6.8%. The WTO’s value measure and UNCTAD’s global goods total are close but not identical, so they should be kept as separate reported figures rather than combined into an unsupported calculation. WTO, Annual Report 2025: Global trade developments and outlook
The leading national merchandise totals also show concentration among major trading economies. China’s merchandise exports totaled US$3.58 trillion in 2024, the largest national export total. United States merchandise imports totaled US$3.36 trillion, the largest national import total. Merchandise exports of least developed countries increased 5% to US$275 billion. WTO, Annual Report 2025: Global trade developments and outlook
UNCTAD’s 2024 summary reports that global services trade rose 9% and added US$700 billion, while global goods trade grew 2% and added US$500 billion. These are reported growth and change estimates for 2024; they are not a request to reconstruct a different total from rounded figures. UNCTAD, “Global trade hits record $33 trillion in 2024, driven by services and developing economies”
Services and digitally deliverable trade
UNCTAD’s Trade in Services bulletin reports world services exports of US$7.9 trillion in 2023, with year-over-year growth of 8%. Latin America and the Caribbean recorded 12% annual services-export growth in 2023. Services imports grew by more than 10% in both Asia and Europe during that year. UNCTAD, Trade in Services
The same bulletin reports that trade in services expanded 5% in real terms in 2023, while merchandise trade contracted 1.2% in real terms. These are real-term growth rates, so they describe changes after the relevant price effects rather than simply changes in nominal dollar values. UNCTAD, Trade in Services
Digitally deliverable services form a major part of this shift. Global exports of digitally deliverable services totaled US$4.5 trillion in 2023. Developing economies exported more than US$1 trillion in digitally deliverable services in that year. UNCTAD, “Developing economies surpass $1 trillion mark in digitally deliverable services exports”
Participation is broadening, although it remains concentrated. The ten leading services-exporting developing economies held 21% of the global services market in 2023, up 5 percentage points from 2010. The comparison is explicitly between 2023 and 2010, and the 21% figure refers to the top ten developing economies rather than all developing economies. UNCTAD, Trade in Services
Developing economies and trade imbalances
UNCTAD reported that developing economies’ imports increased 4% in 2024 and their exports also increased 4%. In the fourth quarter of 2024, imports and exports of developing economies each increased 2%. South-South trade expanded 5% across 2024 and 4% in the fourth quarter. UNCTAD, “Global trade hits record $33 trillion in 2024, driven by services and developing economies”
The comparison with developed economies was notably different in the same UNCTAD account: developed economies recorded 0% growth for both imports and exports in 2024. Global goods trade grew by less than 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024, even as the full-year goods and services picture showed stronger annual changes. The quarter and year are different scopes and should not be treated as interchangeable. UNCTAD, “Global trade hits record $33 trillion in 2024, driven by services and developing economies”
Trade balances also varied by bilateral relationship. The United States’ trade deficit with China reached US$355 billion in 2024, while its trade deficit with the European Union reached US$241 billion. These are bilateral deficit figures for 2024; they do not describe the United States’ total trade balance with the world. UNCTAD, “Global trade hits record $33 trillion in 2024, driven by services and developing economies”
Taken together, the 2024 statistics describe a trade system in which services grew faster than goods, digitally deliverable exports crossed the trillion-dollar mark for developing economies, and South-South trade expanded while developed-economy trade growth was flat in the reported annual comparison. The figures also show why international trade statistics need clear labels for goods versus services, nominal value versus real growth, annual versus quarterly measurement, and global totals versus bilateral balances.