In 2025, the United States had the largest economy in the world, with a gross domestic product of over 30 trillion U.S. dollars. China had the second largest economy, at around 19.23 trillion U.S. dollars. Recent adjustments in the list have seen Germany's economy overtake Japan's to become the third-largest in the world in 2023, while Brazil's economy moved ahead of Russia's in 2024. Global gross domestic product Global gross domestic product amounts to almost 110 trillion U.S. dollars, with the United States making up more than one-quarter of this figure alone. The 12 largest economies in the world include all Group of Seven (G7) economies, as well as the four largest BRICS economies. The U.S. has consistently had the world's largest economy since the interwar period, and while previous reports estimated it would be overtaken by China in the 2020s, more recent projections estimate the U.S. economy will remain the largest by a considerable margin going into the 2030s.The gross domestic product of a country is calculated by taking spending and trade into account, to show how much the country can produce in a certain amount of time, usually per year. It represents the value of all goods and services produced during that year. Those countries considered to have emerging or developing economies account for almost 60 percent of global gross domestic product, while advanced economies make up over 40 percent.

Throughout the Second World War, the United States consistently had the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world. Additionally, U.S. GDP grew significantly throughout the war, whereas the economies of Europe and Japan saw relatively little growth, and were often in decline. The impact of key events in the war is also reflected in the trends shown here - the economic declines of France and the Soviet Union coincide with the years of German invasion, while the economies of the three Axis countries experienced their largest declines in the final year of the war.

Since 1980, Europe's largest economies have consistently been France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, although the former Soviet Union's economy was the largest in the 1980s, and Russia's economy has been larger than Spain's since 2010. Since Soviet dissolution, Germany has always had the largest economy in Europe, while either France or the UK has had the second largest economy depending on the year. Italy's economy was of a relatively similar size to that of the UK and France until the mid 2000s when it started to diverge, resulting in a difference of approximately 800 billion U.S dollars by 2018. Russia's economy had overtaken both Italy and Spain's in 2012, but has fallen since 2014 due to the drop in international oil prices and the economic sanctions imposed for its annexation of Crimea - economic growth is expected to be comparatively low in Russia in the coming years due to the economic fallout of its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In 2024, the gross domestic product (GDP) of China amounted to around 18.7 trillion U.S. dollars. In comparison to the GDP of the other BRIC countries India, Russia and Brazil, China came first that year and second in the world GDP ranking. The stagnation of China's GDP in U.S. dollar terms in 2022 and 2023 was mainly due to the appreciation of the U.S. dollar. China's real GDP growth was 3.1 percent in 2022 and 5.4 percent in 2023. In 2024, per capita GDP in China reached around 13,300 U.S. dollars. Economic performance in China Gross domestic product (GDP) is a primary economic indicator. It measures the total value of all goods and services produced in an economy over a certain time period. China's economy used to grow quickly in the past, but the growth rate of China’s real GDP gradually slowed down in recent years, and year-on-year GDP growth is forecasted to range at only around four percent in the years after 2024. Since 2010, China has been the world’s second-largest economy, surpassing Japan.China’s emergence in the world’s economy has a lot to do with its status as the ‘world’s factory’. Since 2013, China is the largest export country in the world. Some argue that it is partly due to the undervalued Chinese currency. The Big Mac Index, a simplified and informal way to measure the purchasing power parity between different currencies, indicates that the Chinese currency yuan was roughly undervalued by 38 percent in 2024. GDP development Although the impressive economic development in China has led millions of people out of poverty, China is still not in the league of industrialized countries on the per capita basis. To name one example, the U.S. per capita economic output was more than six times as large as in China in 2024. Meanwhile, the Chinese society faces increased income disparities. The Gini coefficient of China, a widely used indicator of economic inequality, has been larger than 0.45 over the last decade, whereas 0.40 is the warning level for social unrest.

In 1938, the year before the Second World War, the United States had, by far, the largest economy in the world in terms of gross domestic product (GDP). The five Allied Great Powers that emerged victorious from the war, along with the three Axis Tripartite Pact countries that were ultimately defeated made up the eight largest independent economies in 1938.

When values are converted into 1990 international dollars, the U.S. GDP was over 800 billion dollars in 1938, which was more than double that of the second largest economy, the Soviet Union. Even the combined economies of the UK, its dominions, and colonies had a value of just over 680 billion 1990 dollars, showing that the United States had established itself as the world's leading economy during the interwar period (despite the Great Depression).

Interestingly, the British and Dutch colonies had larger combined GDPs than their respective metropoles, which was a key motivator for the Japanese invasion of these territories in East Asia during the war. Trade with neutral and non-belligerent countries also contributed greatly to the economic development of Allied and Axis powers throughout the war; for example, natural resources from Latin America were essential to the American war effort, while German manufacturing was often dependent on Swedish iron supplies.

This dataset provides values for GDP reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in China expanded 1.20 percent in the first quarter of 2025 over the previous quarter. This dataset provides - China GDP Growth Rate - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

The United States has, by far, the largest gross domestic product (GDP) of the G7 countries. Moreover, while the GDP of the other six countries fluctuated between 2000 and 2024, the U.S.' grew almost constantly, reaching an estimated 29.2 trillion U.S. dollars in 2024. The United States is also the world's largest economy ahead of China. Germany had the second largest economy of the G7 countries at around 4.7 trillion U.S. dollars.

The statistic depicts France's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate from 2020 to 2024, with projections up until 2030. GDP refers to the total market value of all goods and services that are produced within a country per year. It is an important indicator of the economic strength of a country. Real GDP is adjusted for price changes and is therefore regarded as a key indicator for economic growth. In 2024, France's real GDP grew by about 1.07 percent compared to the previous year. Unemployment in France France has one of the largest economies in the world and is the second largest economy in the European Union, behind Germany, with whom France often partnered in order to support the structure of the European Union. France is also the fourth most populated country in Europe and has maintained slow population growth since the mid 2000s. Despite being not only a European but also a global economic power, France struggled with maintaining a low unemployment rate and experienced a significant increase in unemployment after the 2008 crash, just like many other prominent industrial countries. However, unlike these other nations, unemployment continued to rise well into the 2010s, while the employment situations in neighboring and international countries improved almost every year. The lack of working opportunities is related to the Eurozone crisis that primarily affected southern European countries, such as Spain, Portugal and Italy.

View economic output, reported as the nominal value of all new goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S.

This dataset provides values for GDP reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States contracted 0.50 percent in the first quarter of 2025 over the previous quarter. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States GDP Growth Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States amounted to 27.7 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023, making it the largest economy in the G20 and the largest worldwide. China was the second largest economy in that year, with a GDP valued at 17.8 trillion U.S. dollars. It is worth noticing that while the U.S. GDP was forecast to increase by around five trillion U.S. dollars until 2027, China's GDP is forecast to grow by around 4.2 trillion U.S. dollars in the same time.

According to preliminary data, the agricultural sector contributed around 6.8 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of China in 2024, whereas 36.5 percent of the economic value added originated from the industrial sector and 54.6 percent from the service sector, respectively. The total GDP of China at current prices amounted to approximately 134.91 trillion yuan in 2024. Economic development in China The gross domestic product (GDP) serves as a primary indicator to measure the economic performance of a country or a region. It is generally defined as the monetary value of all finished goods and services produced within a country in a specific period of time. It includes all of private and public spending, government spending, investments, and net exports which are calculated as total exports minus imports. In other words, GDP represents the size of the economy.With its national economy growing at an exceptional annual growth rate of above nine percent for three decades in succession, China had become the worlds’ second largest economy by 2010, surpassing all other economies but the United States. Even though China's GDP growth has cooled down in recent years, its economy still expanded at roughly two times the pace of the United States in 2024. Breakdown of GDP in China When compared to other developed countries, the proportions of agriculture and industry in China's GDP are significantly higher. Even though agriculture is a major industry in the United States, it only accounted for about one percent of the economy in 2023. While the service sector contributed to more than 70 percent of the economy in most developed countries, it's share was considerably lower in China. This was not only due to China's lower development level, but also to the country’s focus on manufacturing and export. However, as the future limitations of this growth model become more and more apparent, China is trying to shift it's economic focus to the high-tech and service sectors. Accordingly, growth rates of the service sector have been considerably higher than in industry and agriculture in the years before the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

This work critically examines the emergence of a post-industrial economy in China as it continues to transform into a 21st century global leader. On August 15th, 2010, the Financial Times published an article stating that recently released figures from the International Monetary Fund show that China had surpassed Japan as the second-largest economy in the world and predicted that China will maintain its lead going forward . This is an astonishing feat for an emerging economy, as Japan had previously held the second-place position for over four decades. In recent years, China has outperformed other large emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia and India. As a result, it is important to examine China more closely and understand what is occurring within the country as it continues to grow and develop as a global leader. In the contemporary global environment, lasting economic advantage comes from attracting and retaining a talented and creative workforce. As China begins to transition from an industrial economy to a post-industrial economy, several factors including a more educated workforce, the development of domestic intellectual property and openness to a more diverse range of ideas and people are becoming more important. Against this backdrop, this report explores the emergence of a creative, service-driven, post-industrial economy in China by employing two methods of analysis developed by Richard Florida (2002). The first part of the analysis examines the changing occupational structure of China’s workforce. To execute this part of the analysis, we divide China’s workforce into the four occupational categories defined by Florida (2002): creative class, service class, working class and fishing, farming and forestry class. The second part of the analysis employs what are known as the “3Ts of economic development” to rank China’s regions according to their strengths in supporting a creative economy. The 3Ts of regional economic development include technology (high-tech employment and innovation), talent (education and skills), and tolerance (diversity and openness). The report explores China’s provincial-level regions and three of its four Municipalities, with a special interest in the dynamics and geography of the creative economy.

In 2024, the industrial sector generated around **** percent of China's GDP. It was by far the largest contributor, followed by the wholesale and retail industry that was responsible for **** percent and the financial sector that produced *** percent of the country's economic output. Since China is the second-largest economy in the world, the industrial sector’s output alone exceeded the entire economy of Germany. China’s export and investment-driven economy China economic development of the early 2000s was mainly driven by investments and exports. A country's gross domestic product (GDP) consists of three parts: Consumption, investments, and net exports. Typically, emerging economies rely mainly on investments and exports for growing their economy and China was no exception. By the end of the 2010s, investments fueled more than 40 percent of China's GDP and exports were responsible for almost another 20 percent. In comparison to that, in most developed economies, investments make up only 20 percent of the economic output. Instead, the main economic driver is consumption. The economic structure in China created a huge industrial sector. For instance, China was the biggest steel exporter, the leading merchandise exporter, and exported more than a third of global household goods. Great push towards transformation In early 2018, the Chinese government proclaimed that the country's economy had reached a new development stage where consumption and services replaced investment and manufacturing as the main driver of economic growth. The fear of the middle-income trap and changing demographics were the main reasons for Beijing's emphasis on economic transformation. Although incomes in China had not stagnated, policymakers attempted to preempt “getting stuck” by steering the economy towards high-quality growth and consumption-focus. Furthermore, a society that was older and had a higher share of middle-class population had different requirements to the economy. In the case of a successful transformation, China's economy would become more similar to those of developed nations. For instance, the financial sector was the largest contributor to the United States economy. In the case of Germany, the service sector generates the largest share of gross domestic product.

The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom was around 2.56 trillion British pounds, an increase when compared to the previous year, when UK GDP amounted to about 2.54 trillion pounds. The significant drop in GDP visible in 2020 was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the smaller declines in 2008 and 2009 because of the global financial crisis of the late 2000s. Low growth problem in the UK Despite growing by 0.9 percent in 2024, and 0.4 percent in 2023 the UK economy is not that much larger than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since recovering from a huge fall in GDP in the second quarter of 2020, the UK economy has alternated between periods of contraction and low growth, with the UK even in a recession at the end of 2023. While economic growth picked up somewhat in 2024, GDP per capita is lower than it was in 2022, following two years of negative growth. UK's global share of GDP falling As of 2024, the UK had the sixth-largest economy in the world, behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and India. Among European nations, this meant that the UK currently has the second-largest economy in Europe, although the economy of France, Europe's third-largest economy, is of a similar size. The UK's global economic ranking will likely fall in the coming years, however, with the UK's share of global GDP expected to fall from 2.16 percent in 2025 to 2.02 percent by 2029.  

South Africa's GDP was estimated at just over 403 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, the highest in Africa. Egypt followed, with a GDP worth around 380 billion U.S. dollars, and ranked as the second-highest on the continent. Algeria ranked third, with about 260 billion U.S. dollars. These African economies are among some of the fastest-growing economies worldwide. Dependency on oil For some African countries, the oil industry represents an enormous source of income. In Nigeria, oil generates over five percent of the country’s GDP in the third quarter of 2023. However, economies such as the Libyan, Algerian, or Angolan are even much more dependent on the oil sector. In Libya, for instance, oil rents account for over 40 percent of the GDP. Indeed, Libya is one of the economies most dependent on oil worldwide. Similarly, oil represents for some of Africa’s largest economies a substantial source of export value. The giants do not make the ranking Most of Africa’s largest economies do not appear in the leading ten African countries for GDP per capita. The GDP per capita is calculated by dividing a country’s GDP by its population. Therefore, a populated country with a low total GDP will have a low GDP per capita, while a small rich nation has a high GDP per capita. For instance, South Africa has Africa’s highest GDP, but also counts the sixth-largest population, so wealth has to be divided into its big population. The GDP per capita also indicates how a country’s wealth reaches each of its citizens. In Africa, Seychelles has the greatest GDP per capita.

This dataset provides values for GDP reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Italy expanded 0.70 percent in the first quarter of 2025 over the same quarter of the previous year. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - Italy GDP Annual Growth Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.