The UK Manufacturing Dashboard: a tool for evidence-based industrial policy

We talk with Dr Michele Palladino, Principal Policy Analyst at Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy (CIIP), who leads the development of the UK Manufacturing Dashboard – a comprehensive, data-driven tool designed to support policymakers, analysts and industry stakeholders with evidence-based insights into the performance of the UK manufacturing sector.

The dashboard brings together key indicators on productivity, employment, international trade and sectoral dynamics, and situates the UK’s position in a global context, offering a robust foundation for strategic decision-making and policy evaluation. In our conversation, Michele discusses the motivation behind the dashboard, how it was developed, and its value in informing thinking on the present and future state of manufacturing in the UK.

Why was the UK Manufacturing Dashboard created, and what need does it meet for policymakers and industry?

CIIP regularly uses data analysis to provide robust quantitative evidence to support its study findings and policy recommendations for governments and international organisations worldwide. Many of our stakeholders are also keen to stay informed about the latest industrial trends and the UK’s international performance. The dashboard is a handy tool that brings together relevant official statistics on manufacturing trends, making them easy to consult when needed.

Can you describe the key indicators the dashboard tracks and how those were selected?

The dashboard monitors three broad trends:

• The state of UK manufacturing and how its contribution to the domestic economy has evolved over time
• The long-term performance of UK manufacturing relative to international peers
• The performance of selected industrial sectors from an international perspective

The selected indicators are designed to capture these trends and are organised into four sections of the dashboard, covering, among others, the contribution of manufacturing to UK GDP and employment; the structure of UK manufacturing; global shares of value added and exports; international trade in manufactured goods; and labour productivity in selected industrial sectors from a global perspective.

What makes this dashboard different from other manufacturing data tools?

Our aim is to make the dashboard an authoritative source of information on the performance and contribution of UK manufacturing sectors, complementing other tools already available to the UK manufacturing community.

The dashboard also complements the UK Innovation Report, our annual flagship publication, which compares the performance of key UK industrial sectors each year, though often over a fixed comparison period. In particular, the dashboard’s sector performance section allows readers to extract key data insights from the UK Innovation Report quickly, without needing to consult the full report.

How do you ensure the dashboard is both comprehensive and easy to use?

All data presented in the dashboard are drawn from official sources, including the Office for National Statistics, the World Bank, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, with only minimal data processing to highlight high-level trends.
The dashboard features an interactive and user-friendly interface to facilitate easy consultation. This ensures that the infographics are accessible to non-expert audiences while also pointing more expert readers and researchers towards the original sources for deeper analysis of specific topics.

What does the dashboard reveal about the UK’s comparative strengths and vulnerabilities in manufacturing?

An analysis of long-term trends in UK manufacturing presents a mixed picture and challenges some common misconceptions about the sector’s role in the UK economy.

It is true that manufacturing’s contribution to UK GDP has declined over time (from 15% in 2000 to 9% in 2024). Manufacturing employment has also fallen, both in absolute terms and as a share of total UK employment (with 2.7 million employees today compared to 4.1 million in 2000). In addition, the UK has lost some international competitiveness, particularly to East Asian economies.

However, the total value of UK manufacturing value added has steadily increased, and the UK remains the world’s tenth-largest manufacturing economy in terms of manufacturing value-added.

Furthermore, comparative analysis of selected sectors shows that the UK continues to be a global leader in industries such as food and beverages, machinery and equipment, metal products, automotive, and aerospace.

Will the dashboard be updated or expanded over time – and if so, how?

We plan to update the dashboard annually with new infographics and data analysis. New content is introduced based on feedback from dashboard users or when our ongoing analysis suggests it.

For example, for 2026, we added an infographic on the contribution of manufacturing across UK regions, which was not available in last year’s edition. The sector performance section has also been completely redesigned in the 2026 edition to place greater emphasis on global sector productivity trends, a topic of particular interest to our industry and government stakeholders.

Overall, the dashboard focuses on high-level structural trends that take time to emerge clearly in charts and, as such, are best updated on an annual basis, while also taking data availability into account.

Go to the UK Manufacturing Dashboard