Countries by GDP per capita (constant LCU)

Ranking 2024

Values shown in per capita.

Analysis

This metric measures gross domestic product per capita expressed in constant local currency units (LCU). According to the source definition: 'Gross domestic product is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period. It can be measured in three different ways: using either the expenditure approach, the income approach, or the production approach. The core indicator has been divided by the general population to achieve a per capita estimate.' The indicator code is NY.GDP.PCAP.KN, sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators for the reference year 2024. Coverage spans 211 countries, with 193 of 211 (91.5%) reporting data for the latest year and 209 of 211 (99.1%) having data from the last seven years. All 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. The viability checks flagged 10 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, and the dataset spans a range of 234.73 to 882,741,862.21 — a spread of over 376 million percent.

Iran ranks 1st with a value of 882,741,862 per capita, an order of magnitude above Vietnam in 2nd place at 62,078,954. Indonesia (3rd, 45,576,126), Korea Rep. (4th, 44,292,855), and Paraguay (5th, 34,019,333) follow. Because each country's value is denominated in its own local currency without conversion to a common unit, the top positions are dominated by countries whose currencies carry large nominal face values relative to real output. Countries such as Japan (20th, 4,583,670), Norway (42nd, 680,917), and the United States (100th, 72,193) appear far lower in this ranking than their conventional per-capita income positions would suggest, precisely because their currencies have smaller nominal values per unit.

Several counterintuitive placements appear in the middle and lower portions of the ranking. The United States ranks 100th at 72,193, sitting between Moldova (99th, 72,480) and Egypt (101st, 71,501). Luxembourg, often cited among the highest-income economies in cross-currency comparisons, ranks 89th at 101,216. Singapore ranks 91st at 93,085 and Switzerland 95th at 85,819. Meanwhile, Somalia ranks 8th at 15,620,301, reflecting a very weak local currency rather than high output levels. Sudan sits last at 235 per capita (211th) and Venezuela second-to-last at 589 per capita (210th). Tajikistan (208th, 990) and Liberia (209th, 711) also rank near the bottom.

The primary limitation of this metric is that constant LCU values are not comparable across countries. Because each country's GDP is expressed in its own currency, rankings reflect the nominal scale of local currencies as much as they reflect productive output or living standards. A country with a historically high-denomination currency will rank far above a country using a lower-denomination currency, regardless of actual economic conditions. Additionally, the 10 extreme outliers flagged at the 3-sigma threshold indicate that a small number of values are distorting the overall distribution. Countries experiencing hyperinflation, currency redenomination, or irregular deflator series may show unusual values. The metric is most useful for tracking changes within a single country over time rather than comparing welfare or output levels across countries.

Methodology

Rankings are based on the World Bank World Development Indicators indicator NY.GDP.PCAP.KN, GDP per capita in constant local currency units, for the reference year 2024. The source defines the metric as follows: 'Gross domestic product is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period. It can be measured in three different ways: using either the expenditure approach, the income approach, or the production approach. The core indicator has been divided by the general population to achieve a per capita estimate.' The dataset covers 211 countries. Of these, 193 of 211 (91.5%) have data for the latest year, and 209 of 211 (99.1%) have data from within the last seven years. All datapoints (100%) are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. Viability checks identified 10 extreme outliers using a 3-sigma threshold. The value range runs from 234.73 (Sudan) to 882,741,862.21 (Iran), a spread of over 376 million percent. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 4.2%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Because values are in each country's own local currency and are not converted to a common unit, this ranking is not suitable for comparing absolute living standards or output levels across countries.

Sources

• World Bank