Geo-Economics and Politics

Chart of the Day: This is how the $88 trillion global economy is spread around the world

Global economy finances money prosperity GDP

The US continues to preside over global GDP. Image: REUTERS/Jim Young

Kate Whiting
Senior Writer, Forum Agenda
  • Before COVID-19, the global economy stood at $88 trillion.
  • But the pandemic has seen growth forecasts revised downwards and economies go into recession.
  • In 2019, the United States had the biggest slice of the global economy pie – and the top 10 economies accounted for two-thirds of global GDP.

This year has seen global growth disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with many of the world’s biggest economies in recession.

And the recovery will take longer than economists first thought. In June, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook projected global growth at -4.9% in 2020, 1.9 percentage points below the April forecast.

Have you read?

Next year, the IMF projects global growth at 5.4% – 6.5 percentage points lower than the pre-COVID-19 projections of January 2020.

Discover

What is the World Economic Forum doing to manage emerging risks from COVID-19?

The impact would be felt hardest on low-income households, said the IMF, and threatens to undo three decades of progress to reduce extreme poverty.

While the economic impact of COVID-19 varies across the globe – depending on factors from economies’ efforts to contain it, level of development and types of industry, to the stimulus packages available – it’s useful to understand the global economic picture before the pandemic.

GDP by country, in 2019. Image: howmuch

This chart from Howmuch.net is based on World Bank data for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for 2019.

Only 16 economies had a GDP higher than $1 trillion, with the US by far the biggest economy at more than $21 trillion – making up just under a quarter of the global total of almost $88 trillion.

China was the second largest at more than $14 trillion and Japan was in third place with just over $5 trillion.

The top 10 economies combined made up two-thirds of GDP, while the 42 represented on the chart made up just over 90% of the world’s GDP, and the rest of the world accounted for the remaining 9.8%.

Africa is the smallest region represented, with three economies - Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt - together making up $1.1 trillion of global GDP.

The chart doesn’t take population size into account and it remains to be seen how the chart will look based on data from 2020.

Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Stay up to date:

New Growth Models

Related topics:
Geo-Economics and PoliticsEquity, Diversity and Inclusion
Share:
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Geo-economics is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

5 geopolitical questions for 2025

Samir Saran

November 1, 2024

Americans went to the polls. Here’s how US presidential election works

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum