At the turn of the 20th century, industrialization in Western Europe and North America saw new countries emerge (or return) as major economic powers. Germany (established in 1871) and the United States were the two countries that began to challenge the established powers such as Britain and the Netherlands on an industrial scale, while France's invigorated banking system compensated for its slow rate of industrialization. This period also saw Scandinavian countries catch up with modernization rates observed in other Western European countries; the wealth of natural resources, increased industrial output, and strong shipping networks combined to allow GDP per capita to grow at rates similar to the United States and France and Germany.

Between 1970 and 1913, GDP per capita in the three emerging regions roughly doubled, outpacing growth in countries considered economic and industrial "leaders" for most of the 1800s. While Britain had been the leading global superpower for most of the 19th century and still maintained healthy economic growth in the given period, the rise of Germany and the U.S. at this time would (and, later, the Soviet Union) go on to shape global economic development over the subsequent decades.

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.

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

Between 1820 and 1913, the world's total GDP per capita grew approximately 2.4 times larger. The most significant growth was seen in the industrialized nations of the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, where GDP per capita in 1913 was almost 4.4 times larger than in 1820. The regions of Asia-Pacific and Africa saw the lowest level of growth in this period.

Western Europe's GDP per capita was roughly double that of Central and Eastern Europe or Southern Europe in the period between 1870 and 1913. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, GDP per capita in the west was equal to 3.7 thousand FY1990 U.S. dollars, roughly two thousand more than the other two regions. Of the three regions, Western Europe experienced the largest GDP per capita growth between 1870 and 1900, although Central and Eastern Europe's growth was higher between 1900 and 1913.

Over the first half of the 20th century, the Soviet Union's GDP per capita rose from 1,218 U.S. dollars to 2,8334 U.S. dollars. There was a slight decrease between 1913 and 1929 due to the devastation caused by the First World War and Russian Revolution and the transition to a communist government and socialist economic structure. However, GDP per capita grew over the following three intervals, and the Soviet Union's relative isolation in the 1920s and 1930s meant that it was relatively untouched by the Great Depression in the 1930s. At the end of the recovery period after the Second World War, in 1950, GDP per capita had already exceeded pre-war levels by a significant margin, and the Soviet Union emerged as one of the two global superpowers, alongside the United States.