Wealth

The $86 Trillion World Economy in One Chart

Published

4 years ago

September 5, 2019

Jeff Desjardins

The $86 Trillion World Economy 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.

Related Topics:GDP countries economy world bank nominal featured

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Wealth

Ranked: The World’s Top 50 Endowment Funds

Endowment funds represent the investment arms of nonprofits. See the worlds top 50, which collectively have over $1 trillion in assets.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 16, 2023

Aran Ali

Ranked: The World’s Top 50 Endowment Funds

What do Harvard, the Church Commissioners for England, the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an entity on behalf of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah all have in common? They all have endowment funds.

An endowment fund is the investment arm of nonprofit institutions like universities, charities, and churches. The purpose of the fund is to invest the organization’s assets to fuel future operations and other important projects.

The world’s largest endowment funds have billions in investable assets, making them sizable players in the finance sector. Here, using data from Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, we take a closer look at the world’s largest endowment funds by total assets.

Types of Endowment Funds

Overall, there are four main types of endowment structures.

Unrestricted Endowment: A fund structure where assets are used at the full discretion of the institution
Term Endowment: A fund structure with a fixed term time period before the principal can be spent
Quasi Endowment: A donation to an endowment with a specific purpose to deploy that capital
Restricted Endowment: A fund structure where the principal value from donations is held forever and only returns generated on the principal can be used

In addition, each endowment fund has different structures in regards to withdrawals, use of funds, and their general investment philosophy.

The Largest Endowment Funds

The largest endowment funds can be compared on a grand economic scale, in terms of assets.

To put it all into perspective, the largest 50 endowment funds represent over a trillion dollars in assets. Or for a more singular example, look at Harvard’s fund, which has an endowment greater than the entire GDP of countries like Serbia, Bolivia, or Slovenia.

Here’s how the top 50 rank.

Rank	Endowment Fund	Total Assets	Region
1	Ensign Peak Advisors, Inc	$124,000,000,000	North America
2	Japan Science and Technology Agency	$80,700,000,000	Asia
3	Stanford University	$75,143,751,000	North America
4	Harvard Management Company	$72,781,329,000	North America
5	Yale University	$56,223,259,000	North America
6	Princeton University	$44,460,038,000	North America
7	MIT Investment Management Company	$42,526,492,000	North America
8	Duke University	$30,385,835,000	North America
9	New York University	$27,840,535,000	North America
10	Columbia University in the City of New York	$24,698,782,000	North America
11	University of Notre Dame	$24,599,541,000	North America
12	KAUST Investment Management Company	$23,500,000,000	Middle East
13	Emory University	$20,458,905,000	North America
14	Johns Hopkins University	$18,037,751,000	North America
15	Church Pension Fund	$17,773,649,171	North America
16	University of Chicago	$17,276,136,000	North America
17	Ohio State University	$16,006,851,000	North America
18	Northwestern University	$15,855,683,000	North America
19	Washington University in St Louis	$15,103,569,000	North America
20	Penn State University, Office of Investment Management	$15,017,272,000	North America
21	Notre Dame of Maryland University	$14,938,580,253	North America
22	Cornell University	$14,850,618,000	North America
23	University of Southern California	$14,495,427,000	North America
24	Vanderbilt University	$13,883,495,000	North America
25	University of Virginia Investment Management Compnay	$13,811,076,000	North America
26	University of Tokyo	$13,285,270,000	Asia
27	National University of Singapore	$12,626,100,000	Asia
28	UNC Management Company	$11,986,857,000	North America
29	University of Michigan Office of Investments	$11,900,000,000	North America
30	General Authority of Awqaf	$11,238,371,192	Middle East
31	Church Commissioners for England	$11,197,700,000	Europe
32	J.Paul Getty Trust	$10,778,927,000	North America
33	Trinity Wall Street Episcopal Church	$9,932,419,000	North America
34	Unitersity of Utah	$9,827,602,000	North America
35	Brown University	$9,793,108,000	North America
36	Kamehameha Schools	$9,326,013,000	North America
37	Dartmouth College	$9,078,340,000	North America
38	Hong Kong Jockey Club	$8,603,580,000	Asia
39	Rice University	$8,424,555,000	North America
40	The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust	$8,313,588,000	North America
41	University of Pittsburgh	$8,011,856,000	North America
42	Nature Conservancy	$7,870,380,000	North America
43	University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation	$7,329,730,000	North America
44	University of Rochester	$7,149,025,000	North America
45	Virginia Commonwealth University	$6,985,495,306	North America
46	Purdue University	$6,755,500,000	North America
47	University of Miami	$6,582,600,000	North America
48	University of Minnesota	$6,304,508,000	North America
49	Caltech Investment Office	$6,252,584,000	North America
50	Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City	$5,588,554,000	North America

The largest endowment fund, Ensign Peak Advisors, is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and manages the assets for the Mormon Church (officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). The church itself has over 16 million members worldwide and is the fourth largest church in America.

The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) is a national research and development agency that plays a core role in promoting technology, innovation, and science within society. In 1995, Japan’s government passed the Science and Technology Basic Plan and the JST came to life and now has over $80 billion in assets as well as offices in Paris, Washington, Singapore, and Beijing.

Just two funds come from the Middle East. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) with $23.5 billion and the General Authority of Awqaf. KAUST is ranked 95th amongst universities in the world and made history in the country by being Saudi Arabia’s first mixed-gender university.

The General Authority of Awqaf has $11 billion in assets and was established as a public authority to manage endowments and enhance Saudi Arabia’s various goals for societal development. “Awqaf” in Arabic loosely translates to assets that are donated or purchased for general or specific charitable causes that are socially beneficial.

On the environmental side is the Nature Conservancy, which has $7.8 billion in assets. The charity is estimated to have protected more than 100 million acres of land.

American Universities Dominate

Universities are one leading category from the world of endowment funds, particularly those from the United States. In fact, universities make up 39 of the top 50 endowment funds, with 35 of them based in America.

Historically, Harvard has been the largest, but Stanford has edged ahead in recent years. Stanford has $75 billion in assets compared to Harvard’s $73 billion. These vast amounts of money have not gone unnoticed, and elite universities are facing mounting criticism in some circles.

“When Harvard’s total admitted freshman class is 1,400 people—and they have an endowment that is the GDP of El Salvador—they’re not a nonprofit, they’re a hedge fund educating the children of their investors.” – Professor Scott Galloway

With student debt rising to $1.6 trillion, it’s likely these universities may face greater criticism around how they use the wealth available to them in endowment funds.

Sizable Influence

The top endowment funds carry considerable influence within the world of finance. While they all have billions to invest, each has very different objectives and intentions on how to deploy their capital.

And despite being non-profit organizations, endowment funds are seeing their overall assets exceed those held by many other investment funds, such as sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, and private equity firms.