this was twice the rate of population growth but somewhat less than the rate of gdp growth which increased by an estimated factor of at constant prices over the twentieth century de long these statistics therefore present longrun evidence of relative decoupling of material extraction from gdp however such relative resource decoupling does not entail an absolute reduction in resources used indeed according to this more recent data since material extraction appears to have grown at a faster rate than gdp suggesting the possibility of recoupling if this trend persists