This is a breakdown of U.S. GDP by industry in 2021. More specifically, we will look at GDP for each of the 14 private “industry groups” or “sectors” used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
14. Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting — 1.1%
Farms, logging companies, fisheries, and other businesses in this industry group collectively contributed $246 Billion to U.S. GDP in 2021.
13. Mining — 1.2%
Mining contributed $284 Billion to U.S. GDP. About half of that amount is from nonmetallic mineral mining and quarrying (NAICS 2123). Common nonmetallic minerals mined include sand, gravel, stone, clay, and refractory materials. The other half of mining GDP is split between metal ore mining and coal mining.
12. Utilities — 1.7%
Utilities are broken into three categories:
- Electric power generation, transmission, and distribution
- Natural gas distribution
- Water, sewage, and other systems
Collectively, these utilities contributed $381 Billion to U.S. GDP in 2021.
11. Miscellaneous non-government, non-business services — 1.9%
This sector includes the following services:
- Repair and maintenance services (for cars, electronics, commercial & industrial machinery, personal products, home goods, etc)
- Personal care services (e.g. hair styling and cosmetology)
- Death care services (e.g. funeral planning & directing, grave digging, etc)
- Laundry services
- Social advocacy, religious, political, labor, and similar organization services
These random assorted services collectively contributed $448 billion to GDP in 2021.
10. Transportation & warehousing –2.8%
This industry group includes transportation of people (e.g. American Airlines) as well as cargo (e.g. Fedex). It also includes warehousing for materials and products that are shipped around the country. In aggregate, these activities contributed $643 billion to GDP.
9. Arts, entertainment, accommodation, and food services — 3.7%
The arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services contributed a total of $840 billion to U.S. GDP in 2021. This category includes businesses ranging from professional sports teams to theaters to casinos to food catering companies.
8. Construction — 4.2%
Construction (NAICS 23) contributed $959 Billion to U.S. GDP in 2021. The construction sector is split into 3 subsectors:
- Construction of buildings (NAICS 236)
- Heavy and civil engineering construction (NAICS 237)
- Specialty trade contractors (NAICS 238)
7. Information — 5.7%
The nebulously named “information” sector (NAICS 51) contributed $1.3 Trillion (5.7%) to U.S. GDP. The sector is comprised of three different business activities:
- Producing and distributing information and cultural products
- Providing the means to transmit or distribute these products as well as data or comunications
- Processing data
Typical business models included in the information sector include book publishers, software publishers, movie and video producers, sound recording industry businesses, radio and internet broadcasting, web search portals, internet service providers, cellular service providers, and cloud computing companies.
6. Wholesale — 6.0%
Some manufacturing companies sell directly to consumers (e.g. Tesla). Other manufacturing companies sell directly through retailer. For example, Ford manufactures vehicles which are then sold to Ford dealerships, and the dealerships then sell those vehicles to consumers. The dealerships are retailers. However, some manufacturers take things a step further. Take the case of agriculture, for example.
In the agriculture industry, the manufacturer is the farmer. The farmer does not usually have the capacity to fill many small orders for the hundreds of thousands of restaurants in the U.S., so instead, the farmer will sell to a company like Sysco. Sysco acts as a middleman — buying food in bulk from farmers and then packaging it into smaller amounts to then sell to restaurants. In this model, Sysco is a “wholesale” company, and the restaurants are “retail” companies.
Many wholesalers operate exactly like Sysco — they buy from manufacturers and then sell to retailers. However, there is also a second type of business which is classified as part of the wholesale industry. This second type of business is a “wholesale marketplace” which does not directly participate in transactions but instead simply facilitates transactions between manufacturers (or wholesalers who do transact directly) and retailers. A good example of a wholesale marketplace is Alibaba.
All together (including both transacting wholesalers and wholesale marketplace companies), wholesale economic activity contributed $1.38 trillion (6.0%) to U.S. GDP in 2021.
5. Retail — 6.0%
Retail businesses buy products in bulk from wholesalers or manufacturers and then resell them in smaller quantities to the final users of the product. In 2021, retail activity contributed $1.39 trillion (6.0%) to U.S. GDP.
4. Healthcare, social assistance, and educational services — 8.4%
This industry sector contributed a total of $1.93 trillion (8.4%) to U.S. GDP. We can further break that down into two subindustries:
| Subindustries | GDP | Business examples |
| Educational services | 1.1% ($258 Billion) | – Elementary, middle, and high schools – Colleges and universities – Professional schools – Trade & technical schools – Testing companies – Tutoring companies – Curriculum development companies – School bus attendant companies – Education consultants for schools |
| Healthcare & social assistance | 7.3% ($1.68 Trillion) | – Hospitals & doctor’s offices – Medical diagnostic labs – In-home care by nurses or other social assistants – Nursing homes & community care facilities for the elderly – Outpatient mental health facilities – Child daycare – Privately operated adoption agencies |
Healthcare and social assistance cannot be cleanly separated into separate subsectors because of businesses such as nursing homes and in-home care which include elements of both.
3. Manufacturing — 11.1%
Manufacturing contributed $2.56 trillion (11.1%) to U.S. GDP in 2021.
| Subindustries | GDP | Business examples |
| Durable good manufacturing | 6.0% ($1.39 Trillion) | – Appliance manufacturers – Vehicle manufacturers – Furniture manufacturers – Physical tool manufacturers – Electronics manufacturers – Physical book makers – jewelry makers – Sports equipment manufacturers |
| Nondurable good manufacturing | 5.1% ($1.18 Trillion) | – Packaged food manufacturers – Packaged beverage manufacturers – Drug manufacturers – Cleaning product manufacturers – Personal care product manufacturers – Cigarette manufacturers – Gasoline producers – Physical magazine producers |
2. Professional and business services — 12.9%
Professional and business services contributed $2.97 trillion (12.9%) to U.S. GDP.
| Subindustries | GDP | Business examples |
| Professional, scientific, and technical services | 7.7% ($1.78 Trillion) | – Legal services – Accounting, tax prep, bookkeeping, and payroll services – Architectural services – Engineering services – Specialized design services – Management, scientific, and technical consulting – Scientific R&D services – Advertising services |
| Administrative and waste management services | 3.3% ($759 Billion) | – office administration (on behalf of another company) – recruiting & talent management – document prep & clerical work – security & surveillance services – cleaning services – waste disposal services |
| Management of companies | 1.9% ($434 Billion) | – Holding companies |
1. Finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing — 21.2%
Collectively, finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing contributed $4.89 trillion (21.2%) to U.S. GDP in 2021.
| Subindustries | GDP | Business examples |
| Finance and insurance | 8.5% ($1.95 Trillion) | – Commercial banking – Investment banking – Fund management – Insurance carriers – Insurance brokers – Insurance agencies – Payday lenders – Payment transmitters (e.g. Visa, Mastercard, etc) – Stock brokerages – Investment advisers |
| Real estate, rental, and leasing | 12.8% ($2.94 Trillion) | – Real estate brokerages and agencies – Landlords – Mobile home parks |