How dependent is the United Kingdom on the United States?

A product has a dominant supplier when a single country sells more than 50% of what is bought of it; we flag it separately above 75%.

• The United States sells 18% of what the world exports of firewood and wood chips; next come Vietnam (28%), Australia (7%) and Canada (5%). The rest of the world exported 7.6 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.
• The United States sells 32.9% of what the world exports of ethyl alcohol (ethanol); next come Brazil (12.5%), Netherlands (11.5%) and Belgium (6.2%). The rest of the world exported 12.6 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.
• The United States sells 15.4% of what the world exports of molybdenum ore; next come Chile (23.7%), Peru (20%) and Netherlands (10.6%). The rest of the world exported 19.6 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.
• The United States sells 28.1% of what the world exports of titanium; next come China (12.5%), Japan (9.9%) and Russia (8.9%). The rest of the world exported 16 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.
• The United States sells 31.8% of what the world exports of open-chain hydrocarbons; next come South Korea (14.3%), Netherlands (6.8%) and Belgium (4.4%). The rest of the world exported 70.1 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.
• The United States sells 46.2% of what the world exports of other nuts (almonds, walnuts); next come Turkey (10%), China (5.7%) and Australia (4.4%). The rest of the world exported 44.7 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.
• The United States sells 35.9% of what the world exports of wooden barrels and casks; next come France (39.1%), Spain (13%) and Austria (1.2%). The rest of the world exported 4.1 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.
• The United States sells 54.8% of what the world exports of starch, sugar and brewing residues; next come China (8.6%), Russia (4%) and Germany (3.2%). The rest of the world exported 28.9 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.
• The United States sells 25.5% of what the world exports of nickel plates, sheets and foil; next come Germany (26%), Japan (16.1%) and Sweden (8.5%). The rest of the world exported 24 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.
• The United States sells 27.6% of what the world exports of original engravings, prints and lithographs; next come France (10.2%), Germany (7.5%) and Netherlands (6%). The rest of the world exported 4.8 times what the United Kingdom buys from the United States.

Exports from the rest of the world already have buyers; the figure shows scale, not availability.

The United Kingdom is the United States’ 7th-largest customer, with 3.6% of its exports.

• Trade between the United Kingdom and the United States
• Who does the United Kingdom rely on?
• Who does the United States rely on?
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on China
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Norway
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Ireland
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Spain
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Switzerland
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on the Netherlands
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Belgium
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Italy
• Dependence of the United Kingdom on Germany
• Trade profile of the United Kingdom
• Trade profile of the United States
• All countries

Sources and licenses

• CEPII BACI · Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
• Natural Earth · Public domain

Methodology

The data come from CEPII BACI (Etalab 2.0 licence), which reconciles what the exporting and the importing country report, in current USD, FOB. Data up to 2024.

Dependence is the share of a country’s imports (or exports) that each partner accounts for. It does not measure whether a product has a substitute or how much it would cost to change supplier.

The concentration index (HHI) adds up the square of each partner’s share, in percent: it runs from 0 to 10,000. Its equivalent is 10,000 ÷ HHI, the number of partners of the same size that would give that value.

Products are HS4 headings of the 1992 nomenclature (some combine different goods), with a floor of $1 million per product and country.

The EU is the 27 current members in every year; the United Kingdom is outside the EU throughout the series.

Re-exports: countries that act as redistribution hubs carry their notice and the figures are not corrected.