List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita
Nominal gross domestic product (GDP)[a] per capita is the total value of a country's finished goods and services (gross domestic product) divided by its total population (per capita).
Gross domestic product per capita is often used as a proxy indicator of a country's standard of living; however, this is inaccurate because GDP per capita is not a measure of personal income and does not take into account social and environmental costs and benefits.[1][2] Measures of personal income include average wage, real income, median income, disposable income and gross national income (GNI) per capita.
Comparisons of GDP per capita are also frequently made on the basis of purchasing power parity (PPP), to adjust for differences in the cost of living in different countries. PPP largely removes the exchange rate problem but not others; it does not reflect the value of economic output in international trade, and it also requires more estimation than GDP per capita.[relevant to this section? – discuss] On the whole, PPP per capita figures are more narrowly spread than nominal GDP per capita figures.
GDP per capita does not consider differences in the cost of living in different countries, and the results may vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country's currency. Such fluctuations may change a country's ranking from one year to the next, while the standard of living of its population might not change by as much.
Several leading GDP-per-capita (nominal) jurisdictions may be considered tax havens, and their GDP data subject to material distortion by tax-planning activities. Examples include Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland and Luxembourg.[3]
Non-sovereign entities (the world, continents, and some dependent territories) and states with limited international recognition are included in the list in cases in which they appear in the sources. These economies are not ranked in the charts (except Kosovo and Taiwan) but are listed in sequence by GDP for comparison. Three UN members (Cuba, Monaco and North Korea) do not belong to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), hence their economies are not ranked. Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations but is a member of the IMF. Taiwan is not an IMF member but is listed in the official IMF indices.
Distorted GDP-per-capita for tax havens
Many of the leading GDP-per-capita (nominal) jurisdictions are tax havens whose economic data is artificially inflated by tax-driven corporate accounting entries. For instance, the Irish GDP data above is subject to material distortion by the tax planning activities of foreign multinationals in Ireland. To address this, in 2017 the Central Bank of Ireland created "modified GNI" (or GNI*) as a more appropriate statistic, and the OECD and IMF have adopted it for Ireland. 2015 Irish GDP is 143% of 2015 Irish GNI*.
A stunning $12 trillion—almost 40 percent of all foreign direct investment positions globally—is completely artificial: it consists of financial investment passing through empty corporate shells with no real activity. These investments in empty corporate shells almost always pass through well-known tax havens. The eight major pass-through economies—the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Hong Kong SAR, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, and Singapore—host more than 85 percent of the world’s investment in special purpose entities, which are often set up for tax reasons.
— "Piercing the Veil", International Monetary Fund, June 2018[4]
Table
[data missing]All data are in current United States dollars. For historical data, see list of countries by past and projected GDP (nominal) per capita.
The table initially ranks each country or territory by its IMF estimate, and can be reranked by any of the sources.
.svg){kind=link}
.svg){kind=link}
.svg){kind=link}
.svg){kind=link}
.svg){kind=link}
.svg){kind=link}
.svg){kind=link}
.svg){kind=link}
.svg){kind=link}
.svg){kind=link}
See also
- List of countries by external debt
- List of countries by GDP (nominal)
- List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita
- List of countries by GNI (nominal) per capita
- List of countries by past and projected GDP (nominal) per capita
- List of countries by wealth per adult
Notes
- ↑ Data are for the area controlled by the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.
- ↑ The name used by the IMF is the "Taiwan Province of China".
- ↑ Figures for China exclude Taiwan, and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau.
- ↑ Excludes Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
- ↑ Excludes data for Transnistria.
- ↑ Figures exclude the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.
- ↑ The name used by the IMF and World Bank is the "West Bank and Gaza". The name used by the UN is the "State of Palestine".
- ↑ The UN figure excludes autonomous region of Zanzibar.
<ref> tag with name "EU" defined in <references> is not used in prior text.References
- ↑ O'Sullivan, Arthur
- ↑ French President seeks alternatives to GDP, The Guardian 14-09-2009."European Parliament, Policy Department Economic and Scientific Policy: Beyond GDP Study" (PDF). (1.47 MB)
- ↑ Richard Phillips; Matt Gardner; Alexandria Robins; Michelle Surka (2017). "Offshore Shell Games 2017" (PDF). Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
- ↑ "Piercing the Veil, FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT, JUNE 2018, VOL. 55, NO. 2". IMF Finance & Development. June 2018.
- ↑ "Data Explorer". data.imf.org. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
- ↑ "GDP per capita (current US$)". World Development Indicators. The World Bank. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
- ↑ [1], (Select all countries, "GDP, Per Capita GDP–US Dollars", and "2023-24" to generate the table), United Nations Statistics Division. Access date: 12 February 2023.
External links
- Chart of GDP per capita at current US$ prices by Google, World Bank data
- World Map and Chart of GDP per capita at current prices by Lebanese-economy-forum, World Bank data
- IMF DataMapper