The per capita wealth versus per capita income, as well as national wealth versus GDP, numbers are really interesting. I wonder if, perhaps counterintuitively, low wealth, high income is better at a national level as it implies lower property values and therefore lower cost of living?
The Germans seem to have a fairly easy time affording to live decently, whereas that’s not really the case in Japan or America despite them being wealthier.
Iconicsuper on
Where’s the proud nation of Nvidia?
Overlordz88 on
The secondary education number seemed off to me. I think this chart is showing enrollment % not who has completed that level (at least that’s what a quick search on US numbers shows).
Edit: Okay so enrollment in high school is probably a similar statistic to completed middle school (lower secondary) so that stat seems more accurate to me now.
Now I’m curious how apples to apples “completing middle school” is across these different education systems.
Keyboardrebel on
India really is just quantity over quality maxing.
Ok-Breakfast-3742 on
Where did it get the China data? Is it trustworthy?
mr_ji on
The numbers for total GDP and median wealth between the US and Japan don’t make sense, even with the population disparity (which is not even 2:1), especially considering how weak the yen is compared to the dollar.
ImLycanDatAss on
Only 87% of Japans population has internet? Wait what? I find this extremely hard to believe.
EfficientAge4384 on
Damn the Japanese save a ton of money
i-deology on
This applies to all these country, but specifically in the case of India it is so evident the divide between the wealthy and the poor. I was just looking at stats of India having one of the largest population living below the poverty line. So for them to even be on the top 5 list means wealth disparity.
And then you look at other matrix like infant mortality, environment quality, human index. This screams failure of governance.
China looks better but not the greatest either.
Vixson18 on
Germany and Japan are in the current state of an aging population with a low birth rate so the population is declining in both. However, Germany about 10 years ago, let lots of displaced refugees in to get workers in the economy and boost birth rates. Japan has failed to do so. Japan may fall behind India soon and start plummeting.
I wonder how long it will be until the USA faces this situation. DINKs are becoming more common. It may come to a point where now the current administration is so anti immigration, in a couple decades they will be a lot more open to it out of pure need
kaminaripancake on
How the fuck does Japan have a lower HDI than the US?!? I’ve lived in both countries, find it very hard to believe. Is it measuring SUVs per capita?
PalladianPorches on
In theory Germany should be part of Europe as its federal entity to compare, rather than each independent state. GDP is similar to China’s and the per capita is similar to Germany.
The US will always have a larger one as almost 40% is generated by paying for healthcare or borrowing to pay to live in the high gdp per capita areas.
vertigostereo on
Nice. It would be cool to see Purchasing Power Parity to give an idea of real wealth.
nonskidded on
How does infant mortality work for the most populous nation, the nation formerly with a one child policy, or the one with an aging population but really low infant mortality?
TooManySteves2 on
China beating the former USA at Child mortality? That’s gotta sting.
turb0_encapsulator on
it’s so fucking crazy how much wealthier America is, yet the average American basically gets nothing for it.
LtUnsolicitedAdvice on
People will pile on India, and at times its absolutely right.
But its worth keeping in mind that India has *only* been independent for 75 years. A vast amount of that time went in just developing self sustenance after the British left the country in absolute tatters. India never had a chance for Industrial Revolution. Try building economy with a country of close to a billion poor people. Most Indians even today grow up with a scarcity mindset because of how tough conditions were growing up. The IT boom gave the country much needed boost but there is a lot of work still left to be done.
Mindless-Pilot-Chef on
52% adults with secondary education sounds really low. It’s almost as if the India I lived in is completely different.
mwyeoh on
They also need to include wealth inequality in these. Things like the median and mode for salaries would give a good idea
Bill_Nihilist on
A special hello to the 20% of the Chinese, some 200 million people, who have the internet but can’t read. What up my homies?
brightesthour98 on
So you are telling me India is behind in ALL metrics?
Fun fact, Indian government takes a lot of pride in being the 4th or 5th largest economy. Sad that we still cannot provide children with good schools nor everyone with good government hospitals. What use is there being such a big economy if all wealth is in hands of the top 2%? Another fact, income inequality in India is at a level worse than it was under the British colonial rule (at least it was so until a few months ago when a report was published).
westarrr on
It’s insane how much of an outlier India is
AxDeath on
Google is telling me California is still the 5th largest economy in the world. $4.215T GDP as of Q2 2025
Do we just not have numbers for California or are we meant to avoid including countries inside other countries or what
Interesting_Ad_8144 on
GDP pro capita: I’ll never understand why it’s not the median used instead of average. Billionaires alone make the USA very wealthy, but Walmart employees don’t earn enough to buy food…
straightdge on
I know some data points which contradicts some parts out here. Putting GDP Iin nominal terms always puts western countries in a better light. Why not use PPP? On top of using HDI which is an index and weird indicators like environment quality rank makes this a clownish comparison. Utterly bizarre choice.
Are you going to put onlyfans model per capita next??
The most worthless comparison ever posted.
artrisD on
Should add a metric showing % of population in poverty
Mkwdr on
Might be interesting to see something along the lines of per capita debt?
JJvH91 on
This is the most blatant example of dataisbeauiful just turning into… Data.
-RedFox on
I am highly doubtful that the IMF has an accurate read on China.
![[OC] A Comparison Of The 5 Biggest Economies](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/9pr815eqr8yf1-1139x1536.png "[OC] A Comparison Of The 5 Biggest Economies")
31 Comments
German’s GDP equals Nvidia’s capitalization
Are any of these dollar values PPP adjusted?
The per capita wealth versus per capita income, as well as national wealth versus GDP, numbers are really interesting. I wonder if, perhaps counterintuitively, low wealth, high income is better at a national level as it implies lower property values and therefore lower cost of living?
The Germans seem to have a fairly easy time affording to live decently, whereas that’s not really the case in Japan or America despite them being wealthier.
Where’s the proud nation of Nvidia?
The secondary education number seemed off to me. I think this chart is showing enrollment % not who has completed that level (at least that’s what a quick search on US numbers shows).
Edit: Okay so enrollment in high school is probably a similar statistic to completed middle school (lower secondary) so that stat seems more accurate to me now.
Now I’m curious how apples to apples “completing middle school” is across these different education systems.
India really is just quantity over quality maxing.
Where did it get the China data? Is it trustworthy?
The numbers for total GDP and median wealth between the US and Japan don’t make sense, even with the population disparity (which is not even 2:1), especially considering how weak the yen is compared to the dollar.
Only 87% of Japans population has internet? Wait what? I find this extremely hard to believe.
Damn the Japanese save a ton of money
This applies to all these country, but specifically in the case of India it is so evident the divide between the wealthy and the poor. I was just looking at stats of India having one of the largest population living below the poverty line. So for them to even be on the top 5 list means wealth disparity.
And then you look at other matrix like infant mortality, environment quality, human index. This screams failure of governance.
China looks better but not the greatest either.
Germany and Japan are in the current state of an aging population with a low birth rate so the population is declining in both. However, Germany about 10 years ago, let lots of displaced refugees in to get workers in the economy and boost birth rates. Japan has failed to do so. Japan may fall behind India soon and start plummeting.
I wonder how long it will be until the USA faces this situation. DINKs are becoming more common. It may come to a point where now the current administration is so anti immigration, in a couple decades they will be a lot more open to it out of pure need
How the fuck does Japan have a lower HDI than the US?!? I’ve lived in both countries, find it very hard to believe. Is it measuring SUVs per capita?
In theory Germany should be part of Europe as its federal entity to compare, rather than each independent state. GDP is similar to China’s and the per capita is similar to Germany.
The US will always have a larger one as almost 40% is generated by paying for healthcare or borrowing to pay to live in the high gdp per capita areas.
Nice. It would be cool to see Purchasing Power Parity to give an idea of real wealth.
How does infant mortality work for the most populous nation, the nation formerly with a one child policy, or the one with an aging population but really low infant mortality?
China beating the former USA at Child mortality? That’s gotta sting.
it’s so fucking crazy how much wealthier America is, yet the average American basically gets nothing for it.
People will pile on India, and at times its absolutely right.
But its worth keeping in mind that India has *only* been independent for 75 years. A vast amount of that time went in just developing self sustenance after the British left the country in absolute tatters. India never had a chance for Industrial Revolution. Try building economy with a country of close to a billion poor people. Most Indians even today grow up with a scarcity mindset because of how tough conditions were growing up. The IT boom gave the country much needed boost but there is a lot of work still left to be done.
52% adults with secondary education sounds really low. It’s almost as if the India I lived in is completely different.
They also need to include wealth inequality in these. Things like the median and mode for salaries would give a good idea
A special hello to the 20% of the Chinese, some 200 million people, who have the internet but can’t read. What up my homies?
So you are telling me India is behind in ALL metrics?
Fun fact, Indian government takes a lot of pride in being the 4th or 5th largest economy. Sad that we still cannot provide children with good schools nor everyone with good government hospitals. What use is there being such a big economy if all wealth is in hands of the top 2%? Another fact, income inequality in India is at a level worse than it was under the British colonial rule (at least it was so until a few months ago when a report was published).
It’s insane how much of an outlier India is
Google is telling me California is still the 5th largest economy in the world. $4.215T GDP as of Q2 2025
Do we just not have numbers for California or are we meant to avoid including countries inside other countries or what
GDP pro capita: I’ll never understand why it’s not the median used instead of average. Billionaires alone make the USA very wealthy, but Walmart employees don’t earn enough to buy food…
I know some data points which contradicts some parts out here. Putting GDP Iin nominal terms always puts western countries in a better light. Why not use PPP? On top of using HDI which is an index and weird indicators like environment quality rank makes this a clownish comparison. Utterly bizarre choice.
Are you going to put onlyfans model per capita next??
The most worthless comparison ever posted.
Should add a metric showing % of population in poverty
Might be interesting to see something along the lines of per capita debt?
This is the most blatant example of dataisbeauiful just turning into… Data.
I am highly doubtful that the IMF has an accurate read on China.