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.

Germany had Europe's largest economy in 2018, with a Gross Domestic Product of approximately 3.38 trillion Euros. The United Kingdom and France had Europe's second and third largest economies in Europe, with the UK's GDP worth 2.39 trillion and France 2.35 trillion.

The statistic shows global gross domestic product (GDP) from 1985 to 2022, with projections up until 2029. In 2020, global GDP amounted to about 85.52 trillion U.S. dollars, two and a half trillion lower than in 2019. Gross domestic product Gross domestic product, also known as GDP, is the accumulated value of all finished goods and services produced in a country, often measured annually. GDP is significant in determining the economic health, growth and productivity in the country, and is a stat often used when comparing several countries at a time, most likely in order to determine which country has seen the most progress. Until 2020, Global GDP had experienced a growth every year since 2010. However, a strong growth rate does not necessarily lead to all positive outcomes and often has a negative effect on inflation rates. A severe growth in GDP leads to lower unemployment, however lower unemployment often leads to higher inflation rates due to demand increasing at a much higher rate than supply and as a result prices rise accordingly. In terms of unemployment, growth had been fairly stagnant since the economic downturn of 2007-2009, but it remains to be seen what the total impact of the coronavirus pandemic will be on total employment.

This statistic presents the results of a survey on Thailand's perceived and actual economic ranking among the world's top 200 countries as of October 2018. According to data published by Ipsos, Thai respondents underestimated their country's global economic ranking by far. On average, the respondents thought that Thailand´s GDP ranked number 101 among top 200 countries, when actually Thailand was the 26th largest economy in the world.

This statistic presents the results of a survey on perceived China's economic ranking among the world's top 200 countries as of October 2018. According to data published by Ipsos, Chinese respondents underestimated their country's global economic ranking. On average, the respondents thought that China's GDP ranked number 12 among top 200 countries, when actually China was the second largest economy in the world.

In 2023, the gross domestic product (GDP) of China amounted to around 17.8 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 three percent in 2022 and 5.2 percent in 2023. In 2023, per capita GDP in China reached around 12,600 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 2023. 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 31 percent in 2023. 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 2023. 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.

This statistic presents the results of a survey on Malaysia´s perceived and actual economic ranking among the world's top 200 countries as of October 2018. According to data published by Ipsos, Malaysian respondents underestimated their country's global economic ranking by far. On average, the respondents thought that Malaysia´s GDP ranked number 120 among top 200 countries, when actually Malaysia was the 37th largest economy in the world.

This statistic presents the results of a survey on South Korea's perceived and actual economic ranking among the world's top 200 countries as of October 2018. According to data published by Ipsos, South Korean respondents underestimated their country's global economic ranking. On average, the respondents thought that South Korea's GDP ranked 20th among top 200 countries, when South Korea was the eleventh largest economy in the world.

The graph shows China's share in global gross domestic product adjusted for purchasing-power-parity until 2023, with a forecast until 2029. In 2023, China's share was about 18.75 percent. China's global GDP share Due to the introduction of capitalist market principles in 1978, China's economic market began to show immense change and growth. China's real GDP growth ranged at 5.2 percent in 2023. China's per capita GDP is also expected to continue to grow, reaching 12,600 U.S. dollars in 2023. Comparatively, Luxembourg and Ireland have some of the world’s largest GDP per capita with 129,800 U.S. dollars and 104,300 U.S. dollars, respectively, as of 2023. China is the largest exporter and second largest importer of goods in the world and is also among the largest manufacturing economies. The country also ranges among the world's largest agricultural producers and consumers. It relies heavily on intensive agricultural practices and is the world's largest producer of pigs, chickens, and eggs. Livestock production has been heavily emphasized since the mid-1970s. China’s chemical industry has also seen growth with a heavy focus on fertilizers, plastics, and synthetic fibers. China's use of chemical fertilizers amounted to approximately 50.8 million metric tons in 2022. GDP composition in China Industry and construction account for slightly less than 40 percent of China's GDP. Some of the major industries include mining and ore processing, food processing, coal, machinery, textiles and apparel, and consumer products. Almost half of China's output is dedicated to investment purposes. However, as the country tends to support gross output, innovation, technological advancement, and even quality are often lacking.

In 2023, the gross domestic product of Japan was estimated to be around 4.22 trillion U.S. dollars. This makes Japan third in the world GDP ranking. However, Japan's GDP is much closer to those countries below it in this ranking, as the two largest economies in the world, the U.S. and China, are both several times larger than that of Japan. After decades of rapid growth in the post-WWII era, Japan's economic growth has stagnated in recent decades, with figures fluctuating between four and 6.3 trillion U.S. dollars since the 1990s.

The BRICS countries overtook the G7 countries share of the world's total gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2018. By 2024, the difference had increased even further, the BRICS now holding a total 35 percent of the world's GDP compared to 30 percent held by the G7 countries.

As of 2023, the GDP of Africa was estimated at roughly 3.1 trillion U.S. dollars. This was the highest value since 2010 when the continent's GDP amounted to approximately 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars. The GDP value in Africa generally followed an upward trend in recent years and was estimated to exceed 4.2 trillion U.S. dollars by 2027.

Leading the charge: the three leading African economies

Among the African countries, in 2021, Nigeria had the highest GDP with approximately 442 billion U.S. dollars. South Africa and Egypt followed. These three countries have the largest economies for various reasons. The most notable factors are their population size, natural resources, and level of economic development. Furthermore, Africa was projected to have a real GDP growth rate of 3.9 percent in 2023. Libya was the economy experiencing the highest growth rate in that year.

The Sub-Saharan African economy on the rise

A global comparison showed that Sub-Saharan Africa had the smallest GDP among all world regions in 2021, amounting to 1.87 trillion U.S. dollars. A closer look revealed that Sub-Saharan Africa had a GDP per capita of 1,626.3 U.S. dollars in 2021, again the lowest worldwide. However, the region's economy was forecast to experience continued growth in the following years, with the real GDP increasing by 3.7 percent in 2023.

This statistic presents the results of a survey on Australia's perceived and actual economic ranking among the world's top 200 countries as of October 2018. According to data published by Ipsos, respondents in Australia underestimated Australia´s global economic ranking. On average, the respondents thought that Australia's GDP ranked number 30 among top 200 countries, when actually Australia ranked number twelve in the world.

This statistic presents the results of a survey on New Zealand's perceived and actual economic ranking among the world's top 200 countries as of October 2018. According to data published by Ipsos, respondents in New Zealand underestimated their country's global economic ranking. On average, the respondents thought that New Zealand's GDP ranked number 70 among top 200 countries, when actually New Zealand ranked number 51 in the world.

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. How big is the UK economy in relation to the rest of the world? 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.  

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.

While in 2018, digitally transformed enterprises accounted for 13.5 trillion U.S. dollars of the global nominal GDP, in 2023 they are forecast to account for 53.3 trillion U.S. dollars, more than half of the overall nominal GDP. This signals that digital supremacy in the global economy is near.

Digital transformation: benefits and necessity  

Among many other benefits, digital transformation is essential for helping businesses to create better customer experiences as well as improve their process efficiency through automation. Digitally transformed enterprises are equipped to drive new revenue and stay ahead of the competition. The difficult economic situation brought about by the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, however, has made digital transformation a necessity rather something nice to have - leading DX activities has become CIOs’ top task to help business preserve through the COVID disruption.

Digital transformation challenges   

Despite evidence of widespread benefits through digital transformation, its implementation is not without challenges. Businesses worldwide cite skill gaps and cultural differences as major challenges in their pursuit of digital transformation.A lack of clarity on transformation strategy and insufficient alignment across organizational departments are top reasons as to why some businesses stall momentum in their digital transformation efforts.

In September 2024, the global PMI amounted to 47.5 for new export orders and 48.8 for manufacturing. The manufacturing PMI was at its lowest point in August 2020. It decreased over the last months of 2022 after the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war and rising inflation hit the world economy, and remained around 50 since.

With a Gross Domestic Product of over 4.18 trillion Euros, the German economy was by far the largest in Europe in 2023. The similar-sized economies of the United Kingdom and France were the second and third largest economies in Europe during this year, followed by Italy and Spain. The smallest economy in this statistic is that of the small Balkan nation of Montenegro, which had a GDP of 5.7 billion Euros. In this year, the combined GDP of the 27 member states that compose the European Union amounted to approximately 17.1 trillion Euros. The big five Germany’s economy has consistently had the largest economy in Europe since 1980, even before the reunification of West and East Germany. The United Kingdom, by contrast, has had mixed fortunes during the same time period and had a smaller economy than Italy in the late 1980s. The UK also suffered more than the other major economies during the recession of the late 2000s, meaning the French economy was the second largest on the continent for some time afterward. The Spanish economy was continually the fifth-largest in Europe in this 38-year period, and from 2004 onwards, has been worth more than one trillion Euros. The smallest GDP, the highest economic growth in Europe Despite having the smallerst GDP of Europe, Montenegro emerged as the fastest growing economy in the continent, achieving an impressive annual growth rate of 4.5 percent, surpassing Turkey's growth rate of 4 percent. Overall,this Balkan nation has shown a remarkable economic recovery since the 2010 financial crisis, with its GDP projected to grow by 28.71 percent between 2024 and 2029. Contributing to this positive trend are successful tourism seasons in recent years, along with increased private consumption and rising imports. Europe's economic stagnation Malta, Albania, Iceland, and Croatia were among the countries reporting some of the highest growth rates this year. However, Europe's overall performance reflected a general slowdown in growth compared to the trend seen in 2021, during the post-pandemic recovery. Estonia experienced the sharpest negative growth in 2023, with its economy shrinking by 2.3% compared to 2022, primarily due to the negative impact of sanctions placed on its large neighbor, Russia. Other nations, including Sweden, Germany, and Finland, also recorded slight negative growth.

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.