Markets

The $86 Trillion World Economy in One Chart

Published

6 years ago

September 5, 2019

Jeff Desjardins

Check out the latest 2023 update of the world economy in one chart.

The $86 Trillion World Economy in One Chart

Check out the latest 2023 update of the world economy by country GDPs in one chart.

The world economy is in a never-ending state of flux.

The fact is that billions of variables — both big and small — factor into any calculation of overall economic productivity, and these inputs are changing all of the time.

Buying this week’s groceries or filling up your car with gas may seem like a rounding error when we are talking about trillions of dollars, but every microeconomic decision or set of preferences can add up in aggregate.

And as consumer preferences, technology, trade relationships, interest rates, and currency valuations change — so does the final composition of the world’s $86 trillion economy.

Country GDPs, by Size

Today’s visualization comes to us from HowMuch.net, and it charts the most recent composition of the global economic landscape.

It should be noted that the diagram uses nominal GDP to measure economic output, which is different than using GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). The data in the diagram and table below come from the World Bank’s latest update, published in July 2019.

The Top 15 Economies, by GDP

Rank	Country	GDP (Nominal, USD)	Share of World Total (%)
#1	🇺🇸 United States	$20.49 trillion	23.89%
#2	🇨🇳 China	$13.61 trillion	15.86%
#3	🇯🇵 Japan	$4.97 trillion	5.79%
#4	🇩🇪 Germany	$4.00 trillion	4.66%
#5	🇬🇧 United Kingdom	$2.83 trillion	3.29%
#6	🇫🇷 France	$2.78 trillion	3.24%
#7	🇮🇳 India	$2.73 trillion	3.18%
#8	🇮🇹 Italy	$2.07 trillion	2.42%
#9	🇧🇷 Brazil	$1.87 trillion	2.18%
#10	🇨🇦 Canada	$1.71 trillion	1.99%
#11	🇷🇺 Russian Federation	$1.66 trillion	1.93%
#12	🇰🇷 Korea, Rep.	$1.62 trillion	1.89%
#13	🇦🇺 Australia	$1.43 trillion	1.67%
#14	🇪🇸 Spain	$1.43 trillion	1.66%
#15	🇲🇽 Mexico	$1.22 trillion	1.43%

The above 15 economies represent a whopping 75% of total global GDP, which added up to $85.8 trillion in 2018 according to the World Bank.

Most interestingly, the gap between China and the United States is narrowing — and in nominal terms, China’s economy is now 66.4% the size.

A Higher Level Look

The World Bank also provides a regional breakdown of global GDP, which we helps to give additional perspective:

Rank	Geographic Region	GDP (Nominal, USD)	Global Share
#1	East Asia & Pacific	$25.9 trillion	30.2%
#2	Europe & Central Asia	$23.0 trillion	26.8%
#3	North America	$22.2 trillion	25.9%
#4	Latin America & Caribbean	$5.8 trillion	6.8%
#5	Middle East & North Africa	$3.6 trillion	4.2%
#6	South Asia	$3.5 trillion	4.1%
#7	Sub-Saharan Africa	$1.7 trillion	2.0%
	World Total	$85.8 trillion	100.0%

The organization breaks it down by income levels, as well:

Income Level	GDP (Nominal, USD)	Global Share
High income countries	$54.1 trillion	63.1%
Upper middle income countries	$24.4 trillion	28.4%
Lower middle income countries	$6.7 trillion	7.8%
Low income countries	$0.6 trillion	0.7%
World total	$85.8 trillion	100.00%

The low income countries — which have a combined population of about 705 million people — add up to only 0.6% of global GDP.

Looking Towards the Future

For more on the world economy and predictions on country GDPs on a forward-looking basis, we suggest looking at our animation on the Biggest Economies in 2030.

It is worth mentioning, however, that the animation uses GDP (PPP) calculations instead of the nominal ones above.