Economic Activities Around Us

The primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, examples of each, and how the sectors depend on one another from the field to the shop.

Key ideas

An economic activity produces goods or services that have money value.
The primary sector takes things directly from nature: farming, fishing, mining.
The secondary sector turns raw materials into goods: cloth mills, factories, building.
The tertiary (service) sector provides services rather than goods: teaching, banking, transport, shops.
The sectors depend on each other: a shirt starts as cotton on a farm, is made in a mill and is carried and sold by services.
The tertiary sector has grown in India as cities grew and technology created new jobs.
Natural resources are where most goods begin, so they must be used carefully.

Remember

Primary sector	uses nature directly (farming, fishing, mining)
Secondary sector	makes goods from raw materials (factories)
Tertiary sector	services (teaching, transport, banking)
Milk → paneer in a dairy plant	secondary activity
Raw materials for factories	come from the primary sector
Share of workers	total ÷ 100 × the number out of every 100

Watch out

Putting transport or shops in the secondary sector: they are services (tertiary).
Thinking processing on a farm product is still primary: making paneer or cloth is secondary.
Forgetting to take the other sectors’ shares away first when finding the rest.

Worked example

In a town of 1,800 workers, 36 out of every 100 work in the primary sector and 10 out of every 100 in the secondary sector. The rest work in the tertiary sector. How many work in the tertiary sector?

Working: 54 out of every 100; 1,800 ÷ 100 × 54

Answer: 972 workers