Industrialisation

According to the Maddison Project, Italy (green line) was the most productive region of Europe in 1500 (GDP per capita) and Britain (black line) the leader by 1800 but it was the 19th century that experienced a historically unprecedented explosion of productivity.

The effect of industrialisation is also shown by rising levels of CO2 emissions.

Industrialisation also means the mechanisation of traditionally manual economic sectors such as agriculture.

Factories, refineries, mines, and agribusiness are all elements of industrialisation.

Industrialisation (UK) or industrialization (US) is "the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian and feudal society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive reorganisation of an economy for the purpose of manufacturing." Industrialisation is associated with an increase in polluting industries heavily dependent on fossil fuels. With the increasing focus on sustainable development and green industrial policy practices, industrialisation increasingly includes technological leapfrogging, with direct investment in more advanced, cleaner technologies.

The reorganisation of the economy has many unintended consequences both economically and socially. As industrial workers' incomes rise, markets for consumer goods and services of all kinds tend to expand and provide a further stimulus to industrial investment and economic growth. Moreover, family structures tend to shift as extended families tend to no longer live together in one household, location or place.