Inquiry

What are the Five Types of Industries?

Types of Industries

Different people have different jobs. The types of jobs people do indicate the wealth of a country.

Primary industries extract natural resources or process raw materials (basic material from which a product is made), such as wheat, cattle, zinc, and oil. (A lumberjack, coal miner, and a fisherman would be workers in the primary sector.)

Ontario crop and windmill view, via Pixabay.


Secondary industries transform raw materials into goods for example, manufacturing steel into cars, or textiles into clothing, or lumber into houses in the construction industry.

Hamilton, Ontario industry panoramic view via WikiMedia Commons.


Tertiary industries or the service sector provides services to consumers. People in the service industry are bankers, teachers, nurses, doctors, retail and restaurant workers. 

Doctors performing surgery via Unsplash.


Quaternary industries are knowledge jobs in the newest, most hi-tech sector of industry. They are the research and development industries. Computer programming, space technology, robotics, or researchers into GMO crops are quaternary industry jobs.
Robotic arm, via Unsplash.


Quinary industries include government decision making jobs. This sector includes top officials in government, science, universities, nonprofit, healthcare, culture and the media.  It also includes the domestic activities of a home maker. Childcare and housekeeping contribute to the economy by providing services for free that would otherwise be paid for.
Canadian Parliament building in Ottawa, via Pixabay.


A country must have a balance of types of jobs to be successful economically. It cannot build its economy only on the service sector for example or it will go into debt.

You can tell how wealthy a country is by looking at its industries. The more developed a country becomes the more it will rely on secondary and tertiary industries. A less developed country will have a greater percentage of the population in primary industries, usually farming.  You will learn more about the development of these industries in the second half of the course.  Which of the following countries could be considered wealthy?

Ethiopia
Primary: 88%; Secondary: 2%; Tertiary: 10%; Quaternary: 0%

The United Kingdom
Primary: 3%; Secondary: 25%; Tertiary: 70%; Quaternary: 2%

Canada
Primary: 4%; Secondary: 17%; Tertiary: 66%; Quaternary: 8%; Quinternary: 5%

China
Primary: 10%; Secondary: 44%; Tertiary: 21%; Quaternary: 25%

As you read about the resources below, categorize them into primary or secondary industries.  Consider: in which region of Canada is most of its secondary (manufacturing) industry?
Resources

Three key resources in the Great Lakes region are fresh water (because of the lakes), rocks, and soil for farming.

Climate 

The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowlands are well-suited to farming because of excellent soils and a warm, humid climate.  This area is closer to the equator than the rest of Canada. It can rain 100 cm in the summer and have up to 80 cm of snow in the winter. 

Winter in this region can be very unpredictable because of the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. 

The region has long, humid growing seasons for orchards such as apples, peaches, cherries; grape vineyards; and other fruit such as strawberries. Vegetables such as asparagus, soybeans, and corn as well as other grains, hay, and tobacco crops are grown.


The Lowlands area has mines such as iron ore, zinc, coal, silver, copper, and lead in parts of the region that are rocky.


The area manufactures cars, consumer products, medical equipment, and space items. You may recognize some of these names: Bombadier, John Deere, Ford, General Electric, Whirlpool, and Kellog's Cereal.

A manufacturing area needs 
  • good transportation
  • lots of land
  • plenty of water to keep equipment cool
  • rock on which to build a plant
  • minerals and metals
  • people to work





Peach pickers Bertram farm Vineland Ontario 1912, via WikiMedia Commons.

Unloading containers area in Montreal port , Canada via Unsplash.