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GDP per capita, long-run history: compare countries

See GDP per capita, long-run history for up to four countries side by side.

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GDP per capita, long-run history by country

GDP per capita, long-run history

Annual, International dollars (2011 prices)

Source: Maddison Project Database 2023
GDP per capita, long-run history: latest observations by country
Date ChinaUnited StatesGermanyPoland
4,46744,57632,08812,058
4,73045,88633,36712,732
4,99545,87834,26013,018
5,34346,26634,59113,416
5,64947,15834,71614,036
6,06848,49335,52914,906
6,62749,65536,20615,581
7,27150,49038,01416,711
7,89650,90239,75218,067
8,19050,27640,71519,012
8,73448,45338,96319,718
9,65849,26741,11020,609
10,22149,67543,18921,837
10,94750,43643,28822,170
11,73151,01143,35922,378
12,51551,79744,13323,248
13,32552,80844,40524,285
14,13953,30145,03025,021
15,03054,15246,06526,310
15,97755,45546,37727,881
16,88056,46946,76229,142
17,22654,37944,99628,577
18,66757,52346,15930,688
19,23858,48746,64832,468

Source: Bolt, J. and van Zanden, J.L. (2024), Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update, Journal of Economic Surveys, 1-41, DOI 10.1111/joes.12618. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. The original sources are listed on each page.

All data sources

Original sources of these estimates

GDP pc: 2008 - 2022: Total Economy Database the Conference Board for all countries included in TED. Otherwise UN national accounts statistics

China

  • 1000-1661: Broadberry, S.N., Guan, Hanhui and David Daokui Li (2018), “China, Europe and the Great Divergence: a Study in Historical National Accounting, 980-1850”, Journal of Economic History, 78, 4, 955-1000
  • 1661–1933: Broadberry, S.N., Guan, Hanhui and David Daokui Li (2018), “China, Europe and the Great Divergence: a Study in Historical National Accounting, 980-1850”, Journal of Economic History, 78, 4, 955-1000
  • 1661–1933: Xu, Y. Z. Shi, B. van Leeuwen, Y Ni, Z Zhang, and Y Ma, (2016) 'Chinese National Income, ca. 1661-1933', Australian Economic History Review 57(3), 368–393
  • 1952–2008: Wu, Harry X. (2014), “China’s growth and productivity performance debate revisited – Accounting for China’s sources of growth with a new data set” The Conference Board Economics Program Working Paper Series EWP#14-01.

United States

  • 1650 - 1790: McCusker, John J., ‘Colonial Statistics’, Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Time to the Present, in S. B. Carter, S. S. Gartner, M. R. Haineset al. New York, Cambridge University Press. V-671.
  • 1790 - 1870: Sutch, R. (2006). National Income and Product. Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Time to the Present, in S. B. Carter, S. S. Gartner, M. R. Haineset al. New York, Cambridge University Press III-23-25.
  • 1800-1830: Prados de la Escosura, L. (2009). “Lost Decades? Economic Performance in Post-Independence Latin America,” Journal of Latin America Studies 41: 279–307. (updated data)
  • 1820-1950: GDP movement from Maddison (1995a), amended for 1820–70 to include income of the indigenous population (taken to be $400 per capita in 1820 and 1870).

Germany

  • 1500-1850: Pfister, U. (2022). Economic Growth in Germany, 1500–1850. The Journal of Economic History, 82(4), 1071–1107
  • 1850-1950: Hoffmann, Grumbach and Hesse, op. cit., pp. 454-5.

Poland

  • 1409–1913: Malinowski, M. and Van Zanden (2017), “National income and its distribution in preindustrial Poland in a global perspective” Cliometrica, Volume 11, Issue 3, pp 375–40
  • 1913-1929: Maddison, A. Monitoring the World Economy, 1995
  • 1929-1938: K. Laski, Akumulacja i spozycie w procesie uprzemyslowienia Polski Ludowej, Ksiazka i Wiedza, Warsaw, 1956, pp. 86-90
  • 1937-1950: T.P. Alton (1970), p. 46,