What Productive Capital Is Growing Fastest
Average annual real capital-input growth by asset type · U.S. private nonfarm business · selected periods. Intellectual-property capital services grew faster than equipment and structures in every period shown—and accelerated to 7.2% annually in 2019–2024 while physical-capital growth slowed.
What does it show?
Intellectual-property capital services grew faster than equipment and structures in every period shown—and accelerated to 7.2% annually in 2019–2024 while physical-capital growth slowed.
Methodology
Use BLS table C average annual growth rates for real capital input by asset type in the private nonfarm business sector. Capital input is a Tornqvist aggregation of productive stocks weighted by estimated rental prices. The selected periods are BLS business-cycle and recent-period summaries, not equal-length windows. Limitations: The periods differ in length and economic conditions; bar heights compare BLS-published average annual rates, not cumulative growth. Capital services are modeled productive flows and depend on depreciation, revaluation, rental-price, tax, and industry-weight assumptions. BLS intellectual-property products cover software, R&D, and artistic originals; they do not cover every unrecorded intangible asset. The latest detailed period ends in 2024 even though preliminary aggregate capital-input data extend later.