Report: US Chemical Industry Responsible for 25% of Country’s GDP

According to a new report released by the US National Academics, the chemical industry in the United States was responsible for 5.2 trillion dollars, which is around 25 percent of the country’s GDP, and the industry employed 4.1 million people in the United States in 2020. The report was drafted by a panel headed by Mark Wrighton, a chemist and president of George Washington University.

A report commissioned by the Royal Society of Chemistry found that the chemical sciences contributed 258 billion pounds to the economy of the United Kingdom, which is a fifth of the GDP of the country. The European Chemical Industry Council estimated that the United Kingdom’s chemical industry invests more than 5.9 billion dollars in research and development annually, which accounts for more than 22 percent of the total spending of the United Kingdom in the area.

Mark Wrighton said chemistry’s role in the economy of the United States is extraordinarily large. He also emphasized that strengthening investment in chemical research can stimulate economic growth, and at the same time, advance environmental sustainability.

The report also concludes that chemical research has an economic value based on the spillover of chemical products and knowledge into several other areas, and the fact that chemical patents that rely on chemical knowledge, have a higher average value than other patents.