List of regions by past GDP (PPP) per capita

For estimations of total GDP in history, see List of regions by past GDP (PPP).

These are lists of regions and countries by their estimated real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), the value of all final goods and services produced within a country/region in a given year divided by population size. GDP per capita dollar (international dollar) estimates here are derived from PPP estimates.

Characteristics

In the absence of sufficient data for nearly all economies until well into the 19th century, past GDP per capita cannot be calculated, but only roughly estimated. A key notion in the whole process is that of subsistence, the income level which is necessary for sustaining one's life. Since pre-modern societies, by modern standards, were characterized by a very low degree of urbanization and a large majority of people working in the agricultural sector, economic historians prefer to express income in cereal units. To achieve comparability over space and time, these numbers are then converted into monetary units such as International Dollars, a step which leaves a relatively wide margin of interpretation.

World

1–2003 (Maddison)

The following estimates are taken exclusively from the 2007 monograph Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD by the British economist Angus Maddison.^[1] For his separate estimate of Roman GDP (PPP) per capita and that of other authors, see below.

GDP (PPP) per capita in 1990 International Dollars
Country / Region	1	1000	1500	1600	1700	1820	1870	1913	1950	1973	2003
Austria	425	425	707	837	993	1,218	1,863	3,465	3,706	11,235	21,231
Belgium	450	425	875	976	1,144	1,319	2,692	4,220	5,462	12,170	21,205
Denmark	400	400	738	875	1,039	1,274	2,003	3,912	6,943	13,945	23,133
Finland	400	400	453	538	638	781	1,140	2,111	4,253	11,085	20,513
France	473	425	727	841	910	1,135	1,876	3,485	5,271	13,114	21,861
Germany	408	410	688	791	910	1,077	1,839	3,648	3,881	11,966	19,144
Italy	809	450	1,100	1,100	1,100	1,117	1,499	2,564	3,502	10,634	19,151
Netherlands	425	425	761	1,381	2,130	1,838	2,757	4,049	5,996	13,082	21,480
Norway	400	400	610	664	723	801	1,360	2,447	5,430	11,323	26,035
Sweden	400	400	695	824	977	1,198	1,662	3,096	6,739	13,493	21,555
Switzerland	425	410	632	750	890	1,090	2,102	4,266	9,064	18,204	22,243
UK	400	400	714	974	1,250	1,706	3,190	4,921	6,939	12,025	21,310
12 country average	599	425	798	907	1,032	1,243	2,087	3,688	5,018	12,157	20,597
Portugal	450	425	606	740	819	923	975	1,250	2,086	7,063	13,807
Spain	498	450	661	853	853	1,008	1,207	2,056	2,189	7,661	17,021
Other	539	400	472	525	584	711	1,027	1,840	2,538	7,614	17,351
West European average	576	427	771	889	997	1,202	1,960	3,457	4,578	11,417	19,912
Eastern Europe	412	400	496	548	606	683	937	1,695	2,111	4,988	6,476
Former USSR	400	400	499	552	610	688	943	1,488	2,841	6,059	5,397
USA	400	400	400	400	527	1,257	2,445	5,301	9,561	16,689	29,037
Other Western offshoots	400	400	400	400	408	761	2,244	4,752	7,425	13,399	22,853
Average Western offshoots	400	400	400	400	476	1,202	2,419	5,233	9,268	16,179	28,039
Mexico	400	400	425	454	568	759	674	1,732	2,365	4,853	7,137
Other Latin America	400	400	410	431	502	661	677	1,438	2,531	4,435	5,465
Latin American average	400	400	416	438	527	691	676	1,493	2,503	4,513	5,786
Japan	400	425	500	520	570	669	737	1,387	1,921	11,434	21,218
China	450	450	600	600	600	600	530	552	448	838	4,803
India	450	450	550	550	550	533	533	673	619	853	2,160
Other east Asia	425	425	554	564	561	568	594	842	771	1,485	3,854
West Asia	522	621	590	591	591	607	742	1,042	1,776	4,854	5,899
Asian average (excl. Japan)	457	466	572	576	572	577	548	658	639	1,225	3,842
Africa	472	425	414	422	421	420	500	637	890	1,410	1,549
World	467	450	566	596	616	667	873	1,526	2,113	4,091	6,516
Country / Region	1	1000	1500	1600	1700	1820	1870	1913	1950	1973	2003

1–1800 (Maddison project)

The Maddison project is an international group of scholars who continue and build upon Maddison's work. In their 2014 report they concentrate on the pre-1820 period. Their revised figures show pre-industrial Europe to be richer, but its economic growth to be slower than previously thought.^[2] Their findings confirm Maddison's view that the income gap to Asia was already large before the Industrial Revolution.^[3] The entirety of their GDP per capita estimates can be obtained from their online database.^[4] The following data selection they present in their published paper:^[5]

GDP (PPP) per capita in 1990 International Dollars
Country / Region	1	730	1000	1150	1280	1300	1348	1400	1500	1600	1700	1800
England	600	-	-	-	-	892	919	1205	1134	1167	1540	2200
Holland	600	-	-	-	-	-	876	1195	1454	2662	2105	2609
Northern Italy	800	-	-	-	-	1588	1486	1716	1503	1336	1447	1336
Spain	600	-	-	-	-	864	907	819	846	892	814	916
Western Europe	699	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1305	1139	1312	1473
USA	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	587	900	1296
Cape Colony	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1703	959
Anatolia	700	-	600	580	-	-	580	-	660	-	700	740
Egypt	700	730	600	660	670	610	-	-	-	-	-	-
Iraq	700	920	820	680	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Japan	-	402	-	520	527	-	527	527	-	574	629	641
India	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	793	729	648
Country / Region	1	730	1000	1150	1280	1300	1348	1400	1500	1600	1700	1800

Europe

Europe 1830–1938 (Bairoch)

The following estimates were made by the economic historian Paul Bairoch.^[6] Unlike other estimates on this page, the GNP (PPP) per capita is given here in 1960 US dollars. Unlike Maddison, Bairoch allows for the fluctuation of borders, basing his estimates mostly on the historical boundaries at the given points in time.^[7]

GNP (PPP) per capita in 1960 US dollars
Country / Region	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890	1900	1910	1913	1925	1938
Austria	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	655	640
Austria-Hungary	250	266	283	288	305	315	361	414	469	498	-	-
Baltic countries	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	443	501
Belgium	295	345	411	490	571	589	630	721	854	894	985	1,015
Bulgaria	-	-	-	210	220	210	250	260	270	263	304	420
Czechoslovakia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	504	548
Denmark	208	225	256	294	340	396	502	633	739	862	845	1,045
Finland	188	205	227	241	313	327	368	425	451	520	578	913
France	264	302	333	365	437	464	515	604	680	689	893	936
Germany	245	267	308	354	426	443	537	639	705	743	712	1,126
Greece	-	200	215	230	250	260	290	300	325	322	393	590
Hungary	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	365	451
Ireland	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	624	649
Italy	265	270	277	301	312	311	311	335	366	441	480	551
Netherlands	347	382	427	452	506	542	586	614	705	754	909	920
Norway	280	305	350	401	421	464	523	577	673	749	863	1,298
Poland	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	245	372
Portugal	250	255	260	275	270	270	270	287	290	292	320	351
Romania	-	-	190	200	210	230	246	275	307	336	316	343
Russia/USSR	170	170	175	178	250	224	182	248	287	326	232	458
Serbia	-	-	-	220	230	240	250	260	282	284	-	-
Spain	263	288	313	346	329	323	321	351	370	367	426	337
Sweden	194	198	211	225	246	303	356	454	593	680	765	1,097
Switzerland	276	315	391	480	549	676	705	785	895	964	1,020	1,204
United Kingdom	346	394	458	558	628	680	785	881	904	965	970	1,181
Yugoslavia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	302	339
Europe	240	260	283	310	359	366	388	455	499	534	515	671
Western Europe^[7]	276	-	-	384	-	-	-	583	-	678	710	839
Eastern Europe^[7]	190	-	-	214	-	-	-	314	-	389	315	509
Country / Region	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890	1900	1910	1913	1925	1938

Western Europe 1–1870 (Lo Cascio/Malanima)

The following estimates are taken from a revision of Angus Maddison's numbers for Western Europe by the Italian economists Elio Lo Cascio and Paolo Malanima.^[8] According to their calculations, the basic level of European GDP (PPP) per capita was historically higher, but its increase was less pronounced.

GDP (PPP) per capita in 1990 International Dollars
Authors	1	1000	1500	1600	1700	1820	1870
Lo Cascio/Malanima	1,000	900	1,350	1,250	1,400	1,350	1,960
Maddison	576	427	771	889	997	1,202	1,960

Roman and Byzantine Empires

See also: Roman economy and Eastern Roman economy

Much of the recent work in estimating past GDP per capita has been done in the study of the Roman economy, following the pioneering studies by Keith Hopkins (1980) and Raymond Goldsmith (1984).^[9] The estimates by Peter Temin, Angus Maddison, Branko Milanovic and Peter Fibiger Bang follow the basic method established by Goldsmith, varying mainly only in their set of initial numbers; these are then stepped up to estimations of the expenditure checked by those on the income side. Walter Scheidel/Steven Friesen determine GDP per capita on the relationship between certain significant economic indicators which were historically found to be plausible; two independent control assumptions provide the upper and lower limit of the probable size of the Roman GDP per capita.^[10]

Estimates of Roman GDP (PPP) per capita
Unit		Goldsmith 1984^[11]	Hopkins 1995/96^[12]	Temin 2006^[13]	Maddison 2007^[14]	Milanovic 2007^[15]	Bang 2008^[16]	Scheidel/Friesen 2009^[17]	Lo Cascio/Malanima 2009^[18]
Approx. year		14 AD	14 AD	100 AD	14 AD	14 AD	14 AD	150 AD	150 AD
GDP (PPP) per capita in	Sesterces	HS 380	HS 225	HS 166	HS 380	HS 380	HS 229	HS 260	HS 380
	Wheat equivalent	843 kg	491 kg	614 kg	843 kg	–	500 kg	680 kg	855 kg
	1990 International Dollars	–	–	–	$570	$633	–	$620	$940

Italia is considered the richest region, due to tax transfers from the provinces and the concentration of elite income in the heartland; its GDP per capita is estimated at having been around 40%^[18] to 66%^[19] higher than in the rest of the empire.

The GDP per capita of the Byzantine Empire, the continuation of the Roman Empire in the east, has been estimated by the World Bank economist Branko Milanovic to range between $680 and 770 (in 1990 International Dollars) at its peak around 1000 AD, the reign of Basil II.^[20] This is 1.7 times the subsistence level as compared to the slightly higher value of 2.1 for the Roman Empire under Augustus (30 BC–14 AD).^[21]

Notes

↑ Maddison 2007, p. 382, table A.7.
↑ Bolt, Van Zanden 2014, p. 630
↑ Bolt, Van Zanden 2014, pp. 631, 634, 638
↑ Maddison Project Database, accessed 4 April 2015
↑ Bolt, Van Zanden 2014, p. 635, table 1; 637, table 2. Anatolia is present-day Turkey, forming part of the Byzantine and then Ottoman Empires. 1348 Japanese GDP per capita is actually for the year 1280, 1600 US figure for 1650 and 1800 Anatolian value for 1820.
↑ Bairoch 1976, pp. 286, table 6; 297, table 12; 301, table 14
1 2 3 The border between "Western Europe" and "Eastern Europe" as defined by Bairoch corresponds to the iron curtain, with "Eastern Europe" being identical to the Eastern Bloc (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and the USSR plus Albania). All the rest of Europe makes up "Western Europe" (Bairoch 1976, pp. 317, 319).
↑ Lo Cascio, Malanima Dec. 2009, p. 411, table 6
↑ Scheidel, Walter; Morris, Ian; Saller, Richard, eds. (2007): The Cambridge Economic History of the Greco-Roman World, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-78053-7
↑ Scheidel, Friesen Nov. 2009, pp. 63–72
↑ Goldsmith 1984, pp. 263–288
↑ Hopkins 1995/96, pp. 41–75. His estimates are upward revisions from Hopkins 1980, pp. 101–125, where he lays out his basic method.
↑ Temin 2006, pp. 31–54
↑ Maddison 2007, pp. 43–47; 50, table 1.10; 54, table 1.12
↑ Milanovic, Lindert, Williamson Oct. 2007, pp. 58–66
↑ Bang 2008, pp. 86–91
↑ Scheidel, Friesen Nov. 2009, pp. 61–91
1 2 Lo Cascio, Malanima Dec. 2009, pp. 391–401
↑ Maddison 2007, pp. 47–51
↑ Milanovic 2006, p. 468
↑ Milanovic 2006, p. 459. This latter value also forms the basis for the only superficially lower $633 given by Milanovic et al. 2007 in the table above. The difference in the Roman and Byzantine GDP (PPP) per capita is due to the authors operating with differing conversion rates for the subsistence level: $300 in the Roman case (2.1 x $300 = ~$633), $400 in the Byzantine one (1.7 x $400 = $680). This means that Roman GDP (PPP) per capita was around 20% higher than the Byzantine one.

Bibliography

GDP per capita of the Roman Empire

Bang, Peter Fibiger (2008): The Roman Bazaar: A Comparative Study of Trade and Markets in a Tributary Empire, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-85532-2, pp. 86–91
Goldsmith, Raymond W. (1984): "An Estimate of the Size and Structure of the National Product of the Early Roman Empire", Review of Income and Wealth, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 263–288
Hopkins, Keith (1980): "Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C.–A.D. 400)", The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 70, pp. 101–125
Hopkins, Keith (1995/6): "Rome, Taxes, Rents, and Trade", Kodai, Vol. 6/7, pp. 41–75
Milanovic, Branko; Lindert, Peter H.; Williamson, Jeffrey G. (Oct. 2007): "Measuring Ancient Inequality’, NBER Working Paper 13550, pp. 58–66
Scheidel, Walter; Friesen, Steven J. (Nov. 2009): "The Size of the Economy and the Distribution of Income in the Roman Empire", The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 99, pp. 61–91
Temin, Peter (2006): "Estimating GDP in the Early Roman Empire", Lo Cascio, Elio (ed.): Innovazione tecnica e progresso economico nel mondo romano, Edipuglia, Bari, ISBN 978-88-7228-405-6, pp. 31–54

GDP per capita of the Byzantine Empire

Milanovic, Branko (2006): "An Estimate of Average Income and Inequality in Byzantium around Year 1000", Review of Income and Wealth, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 449–470

European GDP per capita

Bairoch, Paul (1976): "Europe's Gross National Product: 1800–1975", Journal of European Economic History, Vol. 5, pp. 273–340

Angus Maddison — reviews and revisions

Maddison, Angus (2006): The World Economy. A Millennial Perspective (Vol. 1). Historical Statistics (Vol. 2), OECD, ISBN 92-64-02261-9
Maddison, Angus (2007): "Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD. Essays in Macro-Economic History", Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-922721-1, p. 382, table A.7.
Federico, Giovanni (2002): "The World Economy 0–2000 AD: A Review Article", European Review of Economic History, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 111–120 — review
Lo Cascio, Elio; Malanima, Paolo (Dec. 2009): "GDP in Pre-Modern Agrarian Economies (1–1820 AD). A Revision of the Estimates", Rivista di storia economica, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 391–420 — critique of Maddison's estimates
Bolt, Jutta; Van Zanden, Jan Luiten (2014): "The Maddison Project: Collaborative Research on Historical National Accounts", The Economic History Review, Vol. 67, No. 3, pp. 627–651

External links

Maddison Project — Estimates of economic growth between AD 1 and 2010
Walter Scheidel — Papers on ancient economy and demography

Lists of countries by GDP rankings

Nominal	Per capita Past and projected per capita Sector composition

Purchasing power parity (PPP)	Per capita Past per capita Past and projected per capita Private consumption per capita Per hour Per person employed Ten largest historically

Growth rate	European Union member states Latin American and Caribbean countries Oceanian countries Per capita 1980–2010 growth Industrial growth

Gross national income (GNI)	Nominal PPP

Countries by region	Africa nominal PPP Commonwealth of Nations nominal Latin America & Caribbean PPP North America nominal nominal per capita PPP South America PPP Arab League Asia ASEAN Asia & Pacific PPP Former Soviet Republics Europe nominal nominal per capita PPP PPP per capita Oceania nominal nominal per capita PPP PPP per capita

Subnational divisions	Argentina Australia Brazil Canada Chile per capita China per capita Colombia Croatia France Germany Greece India Indonesia Italy Japan Malaysia Mexico Pakistan Russia per capita South Africa South Korea Spain United States comparison with countries comparison in PPP per capita Thailand OECD Top country subdivisions by GDP (nominal)

Lists of countries by financial rankings List of international rankings List of top international rankings by country Lists by country

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