Measuring the US Digital Economy

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) has developed statistics on the domestic production of digital goods and services and on the value of digital trade. Estimates of US digital economy gross output, value added, employment, and compensation are based on a supply‐use framework and are comparable with other statistics from other countries and the official US national accounts. The digital economy estimates currently include digital economy hardware, software, goods e‐commerce, and digital services. The digital economy accounted for 9.6% (US$2051.6 billion) of US current‐dollar gross domestic product (US$21,433.2 billion) in 2019. Digital services trade estimates are also available and include information and communications technology (ICT) services and potentially ICT‐enabled services, which include service types that can predominantly be delivered remotely over ICT networks. In 2019, potentially ICT‐enabled services accounted for 59.1% (US$517.5 billion) of US services exports and 50.6% (US$297.6 billion) of services imports. Through research and collaboration with international organizations, BEA continues to improve digital economy measurement by expanding coverage of the estimates and advancing measurement of related prices, free digital services, data assets, and digital trade.