In 1913, the GDP per capita of the United States grew to more than double what it had been in 1870. The influx of migration to the United States allowed for an industrial boom, and high levels of innovation and expansion meant that the U.S. was at the forefront of technological advancements. High levels of exports also brought significant wealth to the country, as the U.S. extended its sphere of influence across the Americas and into Western Europe. Although a severe recession did halt economic growth in the 1870s and 1880s, the decades that followed saw rapid growth, and living standards and infrastructure improved to levels similar to Europe. Growth in Western Europe was comparatively lower than in the U.S. but was still strong throughout this period, particularly in France, Germany, and Scandinavia.

On October 29, 1929, the U.S. experienced the most devastating stock market crash in it's history. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 set in motion the Great Depression, which lasted for twelve years and affected virtually all industrialized countries. In the United States, GDP fell to it's lowest recorded level of just 57 billion U.S dollars in 1933, before rising again shortly before the Second World War. After the war, GDP fluctuated, but it increased gradually until the Great Recession in 2008. Real GDP Real GDP allows us to compare GDP over time, by adjusting all figures for inflation. In this case, all numbers have been adjusted to the value of the US dollar in FY2012. While GDP rose every year between 1946 and 2008, when this is adjusted for inflation it can see that the real GDP dropped at least once in every decade except the 1960s and 2010s. The Great Recession Apart from the Great Depression, and immediately after WWII, there have been two times where both GDP and real GDP dropped together. The first was during the Great Recession, which lasted from December 2007 until June 2009 in the US, although its impact was felt for years after this. After the collapse of the financial sector in the US, the government famously bailed out some of the country's largest banking and lending institutions. Since recovery began in late 2009, US GDP has grown year-on-year, and reached 21.4 trillion dollars in 2019. The coronavirus pandemic and the associated lockdowns then saw GDP fall again, for the first time in a decade. As economic recovery from the pandemic has been compounded by supply chain issues, inflation, and rising global geopolitical instability, it remains to be seen what the future holds for the U.S. economy.

Industrialization began in Austria in the second half of the 19th century, during the final decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the Austrian sector of the empire, industrialization doubled between 1891 and 1913, and annual economic growth in the years before the First World War was actually higher than in most of the other major European powers. However, it was still lagging far behind Europe's other states as their industrialization process had begun at a much earlier date. Interwar period Following the dissolution of the empire after the Second World War, Austria's borders shrunk significantly, and its industrialization levels fluctuated throughout the interwar period. In comparison to the empire, industrial output was much lower as Austria had lost much of its natural resources to new states in its former territories, such as Czechoslovakia or Poland. Using figures for 1937 as a benchmark, output had already reached a a similar level in 1929, before the Great Depression saw it fall below 60 percent, hypothetically delaying the process by seven years. Austria was then formally annexed by Germany in 1938, and figures are unavailable for the next nine years. Postwar recovery Rapid recovery saw Austria's industrial output return to its pre-war level by 1949. Thereafter, using 1963 as a benchmark, figures show that the decades after the war saw the fastest industrial growth, with output doubling between 1952 and 1963, and it had been on course to double again over the next 12-15 years were it not for the 1973-75 Recession.

In 1800, the population of Spain was approximately 14.7 million. This figure would rise consistently throughout the 19th century, and early 20th century. The population growth rate was set to increase in the mid-1900s, but this was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, which would claim around half a million lives between 1936 and 1939. In spite of the war, the Spanish population continued to grow throughout these years, and reached 28 million by the middle of the century. Between the 1950s and 1970s, Spain observed a significant increase in its population growth, facilitated by the baby boom that followed the Second World War (as in most of Western Europe) as well as general medical improvements and increased life expectancy.

Beginning in the 1980s, Spain would begin a demographic transition marked by a dramatic drop in the fertility rate of the country, resulting in the population only growing by two million between the mid-1980s and 2000 (compared to an increase of two million every five or six years beforehand). There was a sharp rise in Spain’s population from 2000 to 2008, as strong economic growth would be accompanied by a dramatic surge in immigration to the country. This would plateau at just over 46 million in 2008 however, as the Great Recession took its toll on the country’s economy, and in 2020, Spain is estimated to have a population of approximately 46.8 million, which is the sixth-largest in Europe.