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GDP per capita, long-run history: compare countries

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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 United StatesGermanyAfghanistan
44,57632,088519
45,88633,367502
45,87834,260490
46,26634,591797
47,15834,716843
48,49335,529869
49,65536,206964
50,49038,0141,057
50,90239,7521,260
50,27640,7151,320
48,45338,9631,557
49,26741,1101,628
49,67543,1891,792
50,43643,2881,945
51,01143,3592,025
51,79744,1332,022
52,80844,4051,928
53,30145,0301,931
54,15246,0651,910
55,45546,3771,889
56,46946,7622,032
54,37944,9961,928
57,52346,1591,486
58,48746,6481,358

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

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.

No separate list is published for Afghanistan; the database as a whole is cited above.