Countries by Adjusted net national income (constant 2015 US$)

Ranking 2021

Analysis

Adjusted net national income measures the income available to a country after accounting for the wear and depreciation of its productive assets and the drawing down of natural resources. As defined by the World Bank: 'Adjusted net national income is GNI minus consumption of fixed capital and natural resources depletion. This indicator is expressed in constant prices, meaning the series has been adjusted to account for price changes over time. The reference year for this adjustment is 2015. This indicator is expressed in United States dollars.' Values are absolute totals, not per capita, so larger countries tend to rank higher. The dataset covers 179 countries using World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code NY.ADJ.NNTY.KD) for the reference year 2021. Of 179 countries, 145 (81.0%) have data from the last seven years, and 100% of datapoints carry official status. Twenty extreme outliers were identified at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. The full value range runs from $183 million (Sao Tome and Principe) to $17.48 trillion (United States), a spread of over 9.5 million percent.

The top of the ranking is concentrated among the world's largest economies. The United States (rank 1) leads at $17.48 trillion, followed by China (rank 2) at $11.10 trillion and Japan (rank 3) at $3.40 trillion. Germany (rank 4, $3.00 trillion) and the United Kingdom (rank 5, $2.59 trillion) round out the top five. India ranks 6th at $2.41 trillion, ahead of France (rank 7, $2.15 trillion). Large absolute income levels at the top reflect both population size and high-income economies with diversified capital bases. Korea (rank 11, $1.31 trillion) and Australia (rank 13, $1.06 trillion) also appear in the top 15, with Saudi Arabia (rank 20, $533.7 billion) as the highest-ranked Gulf state at this level.

Several notable placements emerge in the middle and lower ranges of the ranking. Nigeria (rank 24, $427.3 billion) outranks Belgium (rank 25, $402.3 billion), reflecting Nigeria's large economic base despite significant resource depletion adjustments. Singapore (rank 40, $262.1 billion) ranks above Malaysia (rank 41, $254.9 billion) despite having a far smaller land area and population. Kuwait (rank 54, $122.8 billion) sits just above Qatar (rank 55, $120.1 billion). In the lower half, countries such as Afghanistan (rank 106, $18.6 billion), Haiti (rank 112, $14.3 billion), and South Sudan (rank 138, $8.66 billion) record values reflecting both small economic size and limited asset bases. The bottom five — Micronesia (rank 177, $356 million), Kiribati (rank 178, $320 million), and Sao Tome and Principe (rank 179, $183 million) — are small island states with minimal recorded income on this measure.

Because this metric reports absolute totals rather than per capita figures, country size heavily influences rank. A populous lower-middle-income country will frequently outrank a wealthy but small nation. Natural resource depletion adjustments can substantially reduce rankings for resource-dependent economies relative to their unadjusted GNI. Consumption of fixed capital is subtracted, which means capital-intensive economies may see larger deductions. Data availability varies: 78.2% of countries have data from 2021 specifically, and some values may draw on earlier reference years, introducing minor comparability issues across the ranking. Reporting reliability differs across country statistical systems, and the 20 extreme outliers identified at the 3-standard-deviation level suggest the distribution is heavily skewed by the largest economies.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code NY.ADJ.NNTY.KD, for the reference year 2021. The metric is defined as follows: 'Adjusted net national income is GNI minus consumption of fixed capital and natural resources depletion. This indicator is expressed in constant prices, meaning the series has been adjusted to account for price changes over time. The reference year for this adjustment is 2015. This indicator is expressed in United States dollars.' All values are absolute totals in constant 2015 US dollars. Higher values indicate more income remaining after deducting fixed capital consumption and natural resource depletion. The ranking covers 179 countries. Of these, 145 (81.0%) have data from within the last seven years, and 140 of 179 (78.2%) have data specifically from 2021. All 179 datapoints are classified as official quality. Twenty extreme outliers were detected at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 5.9%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. The value range spans $183,054,802 (Sao Tome and Principe) to $17,477,801,835,747 (United States), representing a spread of over 9.5 million percent. Rankings should be interpreted as absolute national aggregates; they do not reflect income distribution, per capita welfare, or the quality of underlying national accounts data.

Sources

• World Bank