Unit 3 Geography - Lesson 4: Sectors of Industries

• Industry

  Types of employment, organized by sector (type of industry) where people work
• Examples of industries


  • Government (federal, provincial)
  • Mining, forestry, fishing
  • Tourism
  • Auto Manufacturing
  • Transportation Industry
• Sectors of industry


  • Primary
  • Secondary
  • Tertiary
  • Quaternary
• Primary industry


  Also called extraction, most products are considered raw materials for other industries, larger sector in low income countries
• More people in the world are involved in agriculture than in any other economic activity, BUT it only accounts for 4.3% of the world's GDP in 2022
• Secondary industry


  Manufacturing, produces finished, usable products from the output of the primary sector
• Examples of secondary industries

  • Aerospace manufacturing
  • Automobile manufacturing
  • Brewing industry
  • Chemical industry
  • Clothing industry
  • Electronics
  • Engineering
  • Energy industries
  • Metalworking
  • Steel production
  • Telecommunications
  • Tobacco industry
• Tertiary industry


  Also known as the service sector, involves the provision of services to businesses and final consumers
• Examples of tertiary industries


  • News media
  • Leisure industry/hotels
  • Consulting
  • Healthcare/hospitals
  • Waste disposal
  • Business services
  • Restaurants
  • Government services
  • Education
  • Law and order
  • Entertainment
• While many tertiary industry jobs are unskilled, others such as a teacher or lawyer require training and education
• Often as a country becomes wealthier, more and more of the economy is focused on the 'service industry'
• Quaternary industry


  The research industry, looks for new ways to cut costs, find new markets, produce new ideas, develop new production methods, and develop new technologies
• Examples of quaternary industries

  • Financial Planners
  • Academics
  • Market Research
  • Information technologies
  • Programmers
  • Laboratory Science
  • Biotechnology
• Quaternary industry is one that is based on new technologies and that requires a high degree of education
• Quaternary industry is relatively young since it requires both a high level of education and advanced technologies, and is therefore found most often in the most 'developed' of economies
• Cotton in the fashion industry


  1. Cotton is grown and picked on a cotton farm (primary)

  2. Cotton is processed to cloth, which is, in turn, sewn into clothing (secondary)

  3. Cotton clothes (eg jeans, shirts etc) are sold in high street shops (tertiary)

  4. Research is carried out in to new ways of processing or growing cotton, e.g. organic cotton (quaternary)
• The entire fashion industry involves a great number of different products and services, all of which can be classified according to industrial sector
• The 4 Sectors of Industry are interrelated


  An individual product will usually involve more than one sector
• Only the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors are graphed in population pyramids because number of people working in quaternary are tiny in many countries
• Population pyramids and types of economies

  • Agrarian Economy (primary sector dominates)
  • Industrial Economy (secondary sector dominates)
  • Post-Industrial/Service Economy (tertiary & quaternary sectors dominate)