Countries or territories by GDP (PPP) per capita in 2024
>$60,000
$50,000 – $60,000
$40,000 – $50,000
$30,000 – $40,000
$20,000 – $30,000
$10,000 – $20,000
$5,000 – $10,000
$2,500 – $5,000
$1,000 – $2,500
<$1,000
No data
A country's gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita is the PPP value of all final goods and services produced within an economy in a given year, divided by the average (or mid-year) population for the same year. This is similar to nominal GDP per capita but adjusted for the cost of living in each country.
The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita figures on this page are derived from PPP calculations. Such calculations are prepared by various organizations, including the IMF and the World Bank. As estimates and assumptions have to be made, the results produced by different organizations for the same country are not hard facts and tend to differ, sometimes substantially, so they should be used with caution.
Comparisons of national wealth are frequently made based on nominal GDP and savings (not just income), which do not reflect differences in the cost of living in different countries (see List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita); hence, using a PPP basis is arguably more useful when comparing generalized differences in living standards between economies because PPP takes into account the relative cost of living and the inflation rates of the countries, rather than using only exchange rates, which may distort the real differences in income.
This is why GDP (PPP) per capita is often considered one of the indicators of a country's standard of living,[2][3] although this can be problematic because GDP per capita is not a measure of personal income. (See Standard of living and GDP.)
^There is no explicit "GDP (PPP) per capita" World estimate provided by the IMF. For this figure, the GDP (PPP) world value[5] has been divided by the global population according to the IMF.[10]
^The EU is included because it is much more than a free-trade association like ASEAN, NAFTA, or Mercosur. -- See: "The World Factbook". CIA. 2014. Archived from the original on 11 June 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2022. Although the EU is not a federation in the strict sense, it is far more than a free-trade association such as ASEAN, NAFTA, or Mercosur, and it has certain attributes associated with independent nations: its flag, currency (for some members), and law-making abilities, as well as diplomatic representation and a common foreign and security policy in its dealings with external partners. Thus, the inclusion of basic intelligence on the EU has been deemed appropriate as a new, separate entity in The World Factbook. -- However, because the EU is an organization and not a sovereign state, it does not receive a ranking in this list.
Expanding the coverage of illegal economic activities in Euro area national accounts
The share of the shadow economy is significant in many European countries, ranging from less than 10 to over 40 per cent of GDP.[11]
Since 2014, EU member states have been encouraged by Eurostat, the official statistics body, to include some illegal activities.[12][13][14]
There are many natural economic reasons for GDP-per-capita to vary between jurisdictions (e.g. places rich in oil and gas tend to have high GDP-per-capita figures). However, it is increasingly being recognized that tax havens, or corporate tax havens, have distorted economic data which produces artificially high, or inflated, GDP-per-capita figures.[15] It is estimated that over 15% of global jurisdictions are tax havens (see tax haven lists).[16] An IMF investigation estimates that circa 40% of global foreign direct investment flows, which heavily influence the GDP of various jurisdictions, are described as "phantom" transactions.[17]
A stunning $12 trillion—almost 40 per cent 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 per cent of the world's investment in special purpose entities, which are often set up for tax reasons.
In 2017, Ireland's economic data became so distorted by U.S. multinational tax avoidance strategies (see leprechaun economics), also known as BEPS actions, that Ireland effectively abandoned GDP (and GNP) statistics as credible measures of its economy, and created a replacement statistic called modified gross national income (or GNI*). Ireland is one of the world's largest corporate tax havens.
Ireland has, more or less, stopped using GDP to measure its economy. And on current trends [because Irish GDP is distorting EU-28 aggregate data], the eurozone taken as a whole may need to consider something similar.
The statistical distortions created by the impact on the Irish National Accounts of the global assets and activities of a handful of large multinational corporations have now become so large as to make a mockery of conventional uses of Irish GDP.
^There have been no exclusive estimates for the world average by the IMF. 2023 calculattions are based on the global GDP (PPP), and population estimates by the IMF.[1]
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