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Top 10 Countries By GDP Per Capita, by Region Published 3 months ago on
June 22, 2023
By theWORLDMAPS green checkmark icon Featured Creator
Article/Editing:
Pallavi Rao
A table listing the top 10 countries by GDP per capita (nominal) across
the world and on each continent.

Top 10 Countries by GDP Per Capita in 2023
There are many ways to measure different economies against one another,
but comparing countries by GDP per capita remains one of the most tried-and-true methods.

GDP per capita attempts to level the playing field by dividing a
country’s economic output by its population, effectively giving the
average GDP per person. A higher per capita GDP generally corresponds to
higher income, consumption levels, and standards of living.

The simplicity of this metric also makes it useful for economists and policymakers to communicate levels of economic well-being to the public.

The above graphic from theWORLDMAPS ranks the top 10 countries by per
capita GDP in different regions, using data from the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).

Top 10 Countries by GDP Per Capita in the World
Here are the top 10 countries with the highest nominal GDP per capita in
the world in 2023, measured in U.S. dollars:

Rank Country GDP per Capita Region
1 🇱🇺 Luxembourg $132,370 Europe
2 🇮🇪 Ireland $114,580 Europe
3 🇳🇴 Norway $101,100 Europe
4 🇨🇭 Switzerland $98,770 Europe
5 🇸🇬 Singapore $91,100 Asia
6 🇶🇦 Qatar $83,890 Asia
7 🇺🇸 U.S. $80,030 Americas
8 🇮🇸 Iceland $75,180 Europe
9 🇩🇰 Denmark $68,830 Europe
10 🇦🇺 Australia $64,960 Oceania
Luxembourg, Ireland, and Norway lead the ranking with more than $100,000
in GDP per capita. Luxembourg is a key financial services center in
Europe, Ireland is headquarters to many multinational corporations, and
Norway is one of the largest energy exporters in the region, explaining
their relative prosperity.

Wealthy countries with smaller populations tend to make up the world’s richest ranks. According to the IMF, Luxembourg only has slightly more
than 600,000 people which would be a small city in more populous
countries. In fact, in the top 10, only the U.S. and Australia have a population of more than 10 million.

Introducing Purchasing Power Parity
One of the major drawbacks of using GDP per capita is that it doesn’t
account for the strength of the local currency versus its exchange rate,
the latter of which is heavily influenced by investment flows and demand
for the national currency.

Non-tradable goods in a country (haircuts, local transport, schools,
etc.) do not get valued when using an exchange-rate conversion. It also doesn’t account for the price differences between countries—for example, fresh vegetables in India are far cheaper than in Canada.

To solve this problem, economists utilize purchasing power parity (PPP) indexes. A key element of these indexes is that they remove these price differences and convert into a common currency in order to show relative economic prosperity. Popular examples are The Economist’s Big Mac index
and the Wall Street Journal’s Latte Index.

Nominal vs. PPP-adjusted GDP Per Capita
In the case of GDP, PPP measurements use an “international dollar” which can buy the same amount of goods in any given country as a U.S. dollar
could buy in America.

Click to view this graphic in a higher-resolution.

A table listing the top 10 countries by PPP-adjusted GDP per capita
across the world and on each continent.
Immediately, there are a few noticeable differences in the top 10
countries by GDP per capita when adjusted for PPP. For one, most
countries’ values have increased from their nominal value (except for
the U.S. since it is the benchmark).

Rank Country GDP per Capita (PPP) Region
1 🇮🇪 Ireland $145,200 Europe
2 🇱🇺 Luxembourg $142,490 Europe
3 🇸🇬 Singapore $133,890 Asia
4 🇶🇦 Qatar $124,830 Asia
5 🇲🇴 Macao $89,560 Asia
6 🇦🇪 UAE $88,220 Asia
7 🇨🇭 Switzerland $87,960 Europe
8 🇳🇴 Norway $82,650 Europe
9 🇺🇸 U.S. $80,030 Americas
10 🇸🇲 San Marino $78,930 Europe
Some countries have switched ranks in the top 10, such as Ireland and Luxembourg. Others have been replaced all together, with Iceland,
Denmark, and Australia falling out of the top 10, replaced by Macao, the
UAE, and San Marino.

We can also see how the different calculations of GDP per capita affect
the rankings in other regions:

Search:
Rank (PPP) Region Country PPP (Intl $) Nominal ($)
1 Americas 🇺🇸 United States $80,030 $80,030
2 Americas 🇬🇾 Guyana $60,650 $20,540
3 Americas 🇨🇦 Canada $60,180 $52,720
4 Americas 🇦🇼 Aruba $49,630 $33,090
5 Americas 🇧🇸 The Bahamas $43,910 $35,460
6 Americas 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico $43,840 $38,570
7 Americas 🇵🇦 Panama $40,180 $17,350
8 Americas 🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago $32,050 $19,860
9 Americas 🇰🇳 Saint Kitts & Nevis $29,660 $17,860
10 Americas 🇨🇱 Chile $29,610 $17,830
Showing 1 to 10 of 50 entriesPreviousNext
The Americas and Europe
The U.S. leads the Americas in both nominal and PPP-adjusted per capita
GDP. However, Canada drops to 3rd place under the new metric, overtaken
by Guyana.

In Europe, the usual suspects in the world’s top 10 populate most of the region’s ranks. However, Andorra slides in at 10th in Europe’s richest countries by GDP per capita (PPP). Andorra in particular benefits from
its status as a free economic zone—very low or no taxes—and being a
tourism hotspot with the sector contributing 80% to its economy.

Asia
Singapore, Qatar, Macao, the UAE, and Hong Kong claim top spots as
Asia’s richest countries on both lists. Qatar and the UAE benefit from
oil being a key export of the region, while Singapore and are top
financial centers of Asia. Macao—where gambling is legal—is a massive tourism draw.

On the other hand, Israel and Japan drop out of the richest countries in
Asia when using PPP calculations, with countries like Saudi Arabia and
Bahrain edging them out.

Africa and Oceania
The island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius lead the ranks of
countries by GDP per capita in both nominal and PPP categories on the
African continent, also thanks to their booming tourism industries.

Traditional African economic heavyweight South Africa also features in
this list of Africa’s richest. But Egypt, the region’s third largest economy, only makes the top 10 countries by GDP when adjusted for PPP, otherwise weighed down by its large population.

And in Oceania, adjusting GDP for purchasing power doesn’t have much
effect on the sizable gap between Australia and New Zealand and their
smaller island neighbors. But some local economies are noticeably
stronger when adjusting for PPP, especially Fiji‘s, which has a GDP per capita (PPP) three times bigger than its nominal value.

The Drawbacks of GDP Per Capita
GDP per capita is a useful measure, but it also comes with its own set
of caveats.

For one, it is a measurement of economic output per person, not
individual income or household savings. That gives it clear limitations
in certain cases, such as in Ireland, where the presence of
multinational corporations obfuscates the general output per person.

Secondly, countries with smaller populations do better in the rankings.
Most of the world’s biggest economies (China, India, UK, France) do not
find themselves in the top 10 ranks.

Finally, other metrics for a good standard of living, some of them
intangible in economic terms—human rights, freedom of expression—are not accounted for at all.

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This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator
Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite
Creators around the world.

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