This table provides metadata for the actual indicator available from UK statistics closest to the corresponding global SDG indicator. Please note that even when the global SDG indicator is fully available from UK statistics, this table should be consulted for information on national methodology and other UK-specific metadata information.
| Indicator available | Tonnes of material footprint per capita, and per GDP in million GBP (£) |
|---|---|
| Indicator description | |
| Geographical coverage | United Kingdom |
| Unit of measurement | Tonnes per capita and Tonnes per GDP (million £s) |
| Definitions | Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) is a standard material flow accounting (MFA) indicator and reports the apparent consumption of materials in a national economy. DMC reports the amount of materials that are used in a national economy. DMC is a territorial (production side) indicator. DMC also presents the amount of material that needs to be handled within an economy, which is either added to material stocks of buildings and transport infrastructure or used to fuel the economy as material throughput. DMC describes the physical dimension of economic processes and interactions. It can also be interpreted as long-term waste equivalent. Per-capita DMC describes the average level of material use in an economy – an environmental pressure indicator – and is also referred to as metabolic profile. DMC and Material Footprint (MF) need to be looked at in combination as they cover the two aspects of the economy, production and consumption (See indicators 8.4.2 and 12.2.1). The DMC reports the actual amount of material in an economy, MF the virtual amount required across the whole supply chain to service final demand. A country can, for instance have a very high DMC because it has a large primary production sector for export or a very low DMC because it has outsourced most of the material intensive industrial process to other countries. The material footprint corrects for both phenomena. |
| Calculations | Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) is calculated as direct imports (IM) of material plus domestic extraction (DE) of materials minus direct exports (EX) of materials measured in metric tonnes. DMC measure the amount of materials that are used in economic processes. It does not include materials that are mobilized the process of domestic extraction but do not enter the economic process. DMC is based on official economic statistics and it requires some modelling to adapt the source data to the methodological requirements of the MFA. The accounting standard and accounting methods are set out in the EUROSTAT guidebooks for MFA accounts in the latest edition of 2013. MFA accounting is also part of the central framework of the System of integrated Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA). |
| Other information | DMC cannot be disaggregated to economic sectors which limits its potential to become a satellite account to the System of National Accounts (SNA). |
| Data last updated | 2018-04-04: see changes on GitHub opens in a new window |
| Metadata last updated | 2018-05-31: see changes on GitHub opens in a new window |