Efficiency vs. Productivity — What's the Difference?

Efficiency is the (often measurable) ability to avoid wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time in doing something or in producing a desired result. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without waste.

Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production process, i.e.

The quality or property of being efficient.

The state or quality of being productive

The degree to which this quality is exercised

The quality of being productive.

The ratio of the effective or useful output to the total input in any system.

(Economics) The rate at which goods or services are produced especially output per unit of labor.

The ratio of the energy delivered by a machine to the energy supplied for its operation.

(Ecology) The rate at which photosynthesizing or chemosynthesizing producers form organic substances that can be used as food by consumers.

An efficiency apartment.

The state of being productive, fertile or efficient.

The extent to which time is well used for the intended task.

The rate at which goods or services are produced by a standard population of workers.

(dated) The quality of producing an effect or effects.

The rate at which crops are grown on a standard area of land.

The extent to which a resource is used for the intended purpose; the ratio of useful work to energy expended.

(linguistics) The ability to form new words using established patterns and discrete linguistic elements, as derivational affixes -ness and -ity.

(US) A one-room apartment.

The quality or state of being productive; productiveness.

The ratio of the output to the input of any system

The quality of being productive or having the power to produce

Skillfulness in avoiding wasted time and effort;

(economics) the ratio of the quantity and quality of units produced to the labor per unit of time