In 2025, Luxembourg was the country with the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Of the 20 listed countries, 13 are in Europe and four are in Asia, alongside the U.S., Canada, and Australia. There are no African or Latin American countries among the top 20. Correlation with high living standards While GDP is a useful indicator for measuring the size or strength of an economy, GDP per capita is much more reflective of living standards. For example, when compared to life expectancy or indices such as the Human Development Index or the World Happiness Report, there is a strong overlap - 14 of the 20 countries on this list are also ranked among the 20 happiest countries in 2024, and all 20 have "very high" HDIs. Misleading metrics? GDP per capita figures, however, can be misleading, and to paint a fuller picture of a country's living standards then one must look at multiple metrics. GDP per capita figures can be skewed by inequalities in wealth distribution, and in countries such as those in the Middle East, a relatively large share of the population lives in poverty while a smaller number live affluent lifestyles.

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.

Out of the world's seven largest economies, the United Kingdom was the most negatively affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. During the third quarter of 2020, the GDP growth rate of the UK stood at minus 7.7 percent compared to the previous year. Furthermore, the GDPs of India and Japan were contracted by minus 5.3 percent. Only China experienced a positive GDP growth rate of 4.9 percent during that same period. However, in 2021, all the largest economies worldwide started to recover, with growth rates varying from 1.2 percent (Japan) to over nine percent (India).

In 2024, Brazil and Mexico were expected to be the countries with the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in Latin America and the Caribbean. In that year, Brazil's GDP could reach an estimated value of 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars, whereas Mexico's amounted to almost two trillion U.S. dollars. GDP is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country in a given year. It measures the economic strength of a country and a positive change indicates economic growth.

By the year 2030, it is projected that China will eclipse the United States and have the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world, at 31.7 trillion U.S. dollars. The United States is projected to have the second largest GDP, at 22.9 trillion U.S. dollars.

What is gross domestic product?

Gross domestic product, or GDP, is an economic measure of a country’s production in time. It includes all goods and services produced by a country and is used by economists to determine the health of a country’s economy. However, since GDP just shows the size of an economy and is not adjusted for the country’s size, this can make direct country comparisons complicated.

The growth of the global economy

Currently, the United States has the largest GDP in the world, at 20.5 trillion U.S. dollars. China has the second largest GDP, at 13.4 trillion U.S. dollars. In the coming years, production will become faster and more global, which will help to grow the global economy.

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.

In 2023, China's gross domestic product amounted to approximately 17.7 trillion U.S. dollars, which was the highest GDP across the Asia-Pacific region. Japan followed with a GDP of around 4.2 trillion dollars.  China, Asia-Pacific's titan The significance of the Asia-Pacific region to the world is multifaceted, ranging from geopolitical importance to being home to more than half of the world's population. Characterized by emerging countries and dynamic economic activities, the region plays a key role in the global economy. China, the most populous country after India, and the second largest economy on the planet, accounted for about half of the total gross domestic product (GDP) in APAC as of 2023. The GDP growth in China was characterized by high rates for decades. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the country has struggled to catch up with the previous level of growth rates and was forecast to stay at more modest real GDP growth rates in the coming years.  A new paradigm of development in the Asia-Pacific region Even though the Asia-Pacific region has made significant economic improvements in the last decades, from a developmental perspective, tackling existing socio-economic issues will be critical for future growth. An aspect worth mentioning is the GDP per capita in the region. EU countries, for example, had about three times as much GDP per capita compared to East Asia and the Pacific region in 2022. China has been working towards changing its economic focus to high-tech and service sectors while reducing its concentration on agriculture.

Of all the countries worldwide, the United States has the largest gross domestic product (GDP) at over 29 trillion U.S. dollars as of 2024. China was the world's second-largest economy at 18 trillion dollars. Meanwhile, Tuvalu, the smallest economy, had a GDP of just 70 million dollars.

Russia was the largest economy in Eurasia, estimated to occupy 3.6 percent of the world's gross domestic product (GDP) based on purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2024. Other countries in the region contributed significantly less to the global economy. In total, the presented Eurasian countries were estimated to represent over five percent of the global economy in 2024.

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.

This statistic shows the 20 countries with the highest growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023. In 2023, Guyana ranked 2nd with an estimated GDP growth of approximately 32.96 percent compared to the previous year. GDP around the world Gross domestic product (GDP) is an indicator of the monetary value of all goods and services produced by a nation in a specific time period. GDP is a strong index of a country’s economic strength - the higher the GDP of a nation, the stronger that country’s economy. The countries in the world with the highest GDP or GDP per capita are mainly developed and emerging countries, with global gross domestic product amounting to nearly 75 trillion U.S. dollars. As of 2016, the United States is the nation in the world with the highest GDP with more than 18.56 trillion U.S. dollars, which makes up more than 15.7 percent of the global GDP. The countries with the lowest gross domestic product per capita in 2014 were mainly African nations. The country in the world with the lowest GDP per capita in 2016 was South Sudan, followed by Malawi, and Burundi. However, several economically struggling African and Asian countries such as Myanmar, Côte d'Ivoire, Bhutan, and India reported the highest growth of the gross domestic product in 2016. Also in the top 20 nations with the highest growth of the GDP is China. In 2016, the GDP in China was the second highest GDP in the world. It is estimated that by 2019 the GDP in China will grow by 6 percent. Based on this estimate, GDP in China will be at around 14.6 trillion U.S. dollars by 2019.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of California was about 3.23 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023, meaning that it contributed the most out of any state to the country’s GDP in that year. In contrast, Vermont had the lowest GDP in the United States, with 35.07 billion U.S. dollars. What is GDP? Gross domestic product, or GDP, is the total monetary value of all goods and services produced by an economy within a certain time period. GDP is used by economists to determine the economic health of an area, as well as to determine the size of the economy. GDP can be determined for countries, states and provinces, and metropolitan areas. While GDP is a good measure of the absolute size of a country's economy and economic activity, it does account for many other factors, making it a poor indicator for measuring the cost or standard of living in a country, or for making cross-country comparisons. GDP of the United States The United States has the largest gross domestic product in the world as of 2023, with China, Japan, Germany, and India rounding out the top five. The GDP of the United States has almost quadrupled since 1990, when it was about 5.9 trillion U.S. dollars, to about 25.46 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022.

The G7 countries' combined gross domestic product (GDP) as a share of the world's GDP declined since 2000. While holding over 40 percent of the world's total GDP in 2000, this had dropped below 30 percent by 2024, a development that must be seen in relation with China's economic development over the past decades. Of the G7 countries, the United States held the largest share of the world's GDP at 15 percent in terms of purchasing-power-parity (PPP).

In 2023, the United States accounted for 15.56 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) after adjusting for purchasing power parity (PPP). This share was expected to decrease to 14.72 percent by 2029, which is roughly a seventh of the global total. What is PPP? The easiest way to understand purchasing power parity is the Big Mac Index, a measure developed by The Economist. The index tracks the price of the McDonald’s Big Mac burger, sold at each of its thousands of restaurants worldwide. Countries where the Big Mac is most expensive have higher purchasing power, meaning one can buy more for each unit of that currency. To calculate PPP, economists use a group of goods to calculate the ratio of the price of this group in each country. This ratio is then used to convert all countries into a standardized price level, on parity with each other. Why use PPP? A U.S. dollar in the United States does not have the same purchasing power as a dollar in China, even after considering the exchange rate. For this reason, adjusting for PPP gives an idea of what the rest of the world could buy in the United States, if prices were the same as in their home country. However, some economists argue that using PPP for comparisons between countries is inaccurate because it changes the price level differently for each country. Still, because it accounts not only for country-specific effects but also inflation and exchange rate fluctuations, PPP is a very popular metric.

Guyana had the highest real gross domestic product (GDP) in the Americas in 2023, reaching 33 percent. Panama followed behind with 7.3 percent. On the other hand, the GDP of Haiti decreased by two percent in 2023.

The size of the five original BRICS economies in 2023 - Brazil, Russia, China, India, South Africa - is comparable to the United States and the EU-27 put together. On a PPP (purchasing power parity) basis, China ranks as the world's largest economy. India takes up the economic parity of about half the EU-27. The rise of these developing economies gave rise to questions on the role the United States plays in international trade and cross-border finance. FX reserve managers around the world expect to shift their holdings towards the Chinese yuan in the long term, as of 2023.

In 2024, the United States was the G20 country with the largest gross domestic product per capita, with 68,200 international dollars per capita. The international dollar is a hypothetical currency accounting for purchasing power parity (PPP), assuming that the U.S. dollar would have the same value all around the world. Saudi Arabia had the second highest GDP per capita, followed by Germany. On the other hand, India had the lowest at only 8,000 dollars per capita.

The real gross domestic product (GDP) growth of Macao was more than 80 percent in 2023, which was the highest growth rate across all countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region in that year. In comparison, China's real GDP was reported to grow at about 5.25 percent in 2023 and projected to grow by 3.3 percent by 2029.

From 2011 to 2022, Sweden had the highest gross domestic product (GDP) of the Nordic countries. In 2022, it was estimated to be at 591 billion U.S. dollars, and is expected to reach almost 720 billion in 2027. Norway had the second highest GDP in this time period, but it dropped significantly after the fall in the oil price in 2014. Denmark has consistently been the third largest Nordic economy in this time. Iceland has the lowest GDP in the region, with just 28 billion U.S. dollars in 2022; around 10 percent the size of Finland's.

The statistic shows a ranking of the 20 countries with the largest gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity in 2017. In 2017, Thailand ranked 20th with a PPP-adjusted GDP of about 1,240.05 billion U.S. dollars.