Wealth of countries as GDP per capita

Why some countries are wealthier than others? 1/6
First post: Scope of the analysis and definitions

Firstly, wealth of countries is typically defined as the GDP per capita. We list in the file below the countries included in the analysis. There is a definition of the GDP chapters also in the file below.

US is the country with highest GDP, followed by China. At bigger distance, we find Japan and the four big European countries. Moreover, the differences between the US, China and the rest of countries have increased in the last three years.

Finally, wealth of countries defined as GDP per capita is visible in the graph below. Luxembourg is an extremely small country with a specific economy. Therefore, Switzerland was the wealthiest country in 2018, but closely followed by Norway and Ireland. Next post in a week…

Opinion

There are many voices questioning the use of the GDP to reflect the wealth of a country. For instance, some internet services do not invoice directly to its customers. It happens with searching engines and social network. However, there are no good alternative measures yet. Until then, we try to understand in these posts the wealth of the countries in the traditional way.

Switzerland, Norway and Ireland are the first three countries in the list. But these countries show very different ways to reach a high GDP per capita. Other metrics could indicate the practical differences between the countries. We analyse the GDP chapters contributing and the proportion assigned to employees and taxes.

The origin of the wealth also differs per country. We can see countries basing their wealth in natural resources, agriculture, industry or financial services. The overall GDP per capita is usually higher when the economy is proportionally stronger in the tertiary sector.

file1: wealth of countries 1_6