GDP

What this measures

Gross Domestic Product is the total value of all goods and services a country produces in a year, converted to current US dollars. It measures the size of an economy — not how wealthy any individual person in it is.

Why it matters

GDP is the standard yardstick for comparing economies: it drives a country's influence in trade negotiations, its voting weight in institutions like the IMF, and how much capacity it has to fund public services, defense, or a social safety net. A country can have a huge GDP while most of its population remains poor, if that GDP is spread across a very large number of people.

Notable patterns

• The three largest economies together account for about 48% of the total GDP tracked here.
• The ten largest economies hold roughly 68% of GDP, but only about 48% of the world's population — economic output is far more concentrated than population is.
• United States's GDP of $28.75T is the largest in this dataset; comparing it to GDP per capita often tells a very different story about typical living standards.

Methodology & sources

Sourced from the World Bank indicator NY.GDP.MKTP.CD (GDP (current US$)). Figures reflect each country's most recent reported year, which varies by country — see the year shown in each row. Some small territories and disputed regions are excluded where the World Bank does not report a figure for them.