The Space Economy at a Glance 2011
Space applications have become an important part of everyday life. Weather forecasting, air traffic control, global communications and broadcasting, disaster management -- these and many other key activities would be almost unthinkable today without satellite technology. The space industry itself is relatively small compared to other manufacturing sectors, but its technological dynamism and strategic significance mean that it plays an ever more critical role in modern society.
This book assembles information on the space economy from a wide range of official and non-official sources. Together these paint a richly detailed picture of the space industry, its downstream services activities, and its wider economic and social impacts. Who are the main space-faring nations? How large are revenues and how much employment is there in the sector? How much R&D goes on, and where? What is the value of spin-offs from space spending? Answers to these and other questions are provided in this second OECD statistical overview of the emerging space economy.
A dynamic link (StatLink) is provided for graphs, which directs the user to a web page where the corresponding data are available in Excel® format.
Production and value-added
A few countries dominate the global aerospace production in 2010, with major industry players being involved in both aeronautics and space systems (Table 25.2). The United States and European countries remain the prominent aerospace markets, with sales in the United States representing some USD 214 billion for 2009, followed by Europe, Canada and Japan. However, China, India, Mexico and Brazil are emerging as important customers of aerospace products. The aerospace sector is one of the fastest globalising industries in terms of both market structure and production system. In addition to satellite systems, new aeronautic markets are developing based on the growth in air traffic worldwide (expected to continue rising 4.9% on an annual basis over the next 10 years), and increases in military aerospace expenditures. Despite its strategic nature, aerospace represents a small percentage of the total manufacturing value added in G7 countries (Figure 25.4). The percentage for all G7 countries remains below 4% of the total in 2008 (Figure 25.3).