Countries by Adjusted savings: consumption of fixed capital (% of GNI)
Ireland ranks first among 201 countries with a consumption of fixed capital rate of 34.64% of GNI in 2021, more than 28 percentage points above last-ranked Bangladesh at 1.23%. The gap reflects the wide variation in how much capital — machinery, infrastructure, buildings — economies consume relative to their total income. Since higher values indicate greater capital usage in production, the ranking spans economies at vastly different stages of capital intensity.
Ranking 2021
Values shown in %.
Analysis
Consumption of fixed capital measures the replacement value of capital used up in the process of production, expressed as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI). As defined in the World Bank World Development Indicators: GNI is the total income earned by all residents within an economic territory during an accounting period, and is equal to gross domestic product plus earned income receivable from abroad minus earned income payable. A higher percentage indicates that a larger share of national income is attributable to capital depreciation. The data are drawn from indicator NY.ADJ.DKAP.GN.ZS, covering 201 countries for the reference year 2021. Of those, 186 out of 201 countries (92.5%) report data from 2021 directly, and 197 out of 201 (98.0%) have data from within the last seven years. All 201 datapoints carry official data quality status.
Ireland leads the ranking at 34.64%, a value notably higher than the second-ranked country, Equatorial Guinea, at 26.57%. China (rank 3) follows at 26.53%, and Congo, Rep. (rank 4) registers 25.73%. Japan (rank 5) stands at 25.20%. Among high-income economies, Switzerland (rank 8, 23.99%), Czechia (rank 12, 22.33%), and Latvia (rank 14, 21.72%) all appear in the upper tier, alongside middle-income economies such as Malaysia (rank 15, 21.24%) and Indonesia (rank 20, 20.31%). High values across this group reflect capital-intensive production structures relative to GNI, though the specific composition of capital in each economy differs.
The middle of the ranking clusters between roughly 10% and 17% of GNI. The United States ranks 60th at 16.22%, and Germany ranks 33rd at 18.90%. At the lower end, countries such as Jordan (rank 193, 4.24%), Pakistan (rank 194, 3.99%), and Guyana (rank 196, 3.63%) record relatively low capital consumption shares. Bangladesh ranks last at 1.23%, and Bhutan second-to-last at 1.64%. Several small island states and conflict-affected economies appear near the bottom, though their positions reflect distinct structural circumstances. The 12 extreme statistical outliers identified in the data (at the 3-sigma threshold) include Ireland at the top, which is separated from the rest of the distribution by a notable margin.
The metric carries specific limitations. Because the denominator is GNI rather than GDP, countries where GNI and GDP diverge substantially — such as Ireland, where large multinational profit flows inflate or distort GNI measurements — can produce values that are harder to interpret at face value. The indicator captures the replacement value of capital used up in production but does not directly measure net investment or capital stock adequacy. Reporting methods for fixed capital consumption can vary across national statistical systems, potentially affecting cross-country comparability. The 2726% spread between the highest and lowest values (34.64% to 1.23%) signals that structural differences across economies are large, and rankings should be interpreted with awareness of each country's economic composition and statistical capacity.
Methodology
This ranking is based on World Bank World Development Indicators indicator NY.ADJ.DKAP.GN.ZS, titled 'Adjusted savings: consumption of fixed capital (% of GNI)', for the reference year 2021. The source defines the metric as follows: consumption of fixed capital represents the replacement value of capital used up in the process of production; it is expressed as a percentage of Gross National Income (GNI) which is the total income earned by all residents within an economic territory during an accounting period, equal to gross domestic product plus earned income receivable from abroad minus earned income payable. The dataset covers 201 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. Of these, 186 out of 201 (92.5%) report data from 2021 directly, and 197 out of 201 (98.0%) have data from within the last seven years. All datapoints (100%) carry official quality status. The viability check identified 12 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, with Ireland being the most prominent. The average year-over-year change is 6.3%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Values range from 1.23% (Bangladesh) to 34.64% (Ireland), a spread of 2726.2%. A higher value is treated as better in this ranking, reflecting greater capital use in production relative to national income.