Countries by GDP per person employed (constant 2021 PPP $)

Ranking 2024

Analysis

This metric measures the economic output attributable to each employed person in an economy. According to the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code SL.GDP.PCAP.EM.KD), GDP per person employed is gross domestic product (GDP) divided by total employment in the economy. Purchasing power parity (PPP) GDP is GDP converted to 2021 constant international dollars using PPP rates; an international dollar has the same purchasing power over GDP that a U.S. dollar has in the United States. The unit is an absolute value expressed in constant 2021 PPP dollars, making cross-country comparisons more meaningful than nominal figures. The dataset covers 177 countries, with 100% of datapoints classified as official and 94.9% of countries reporting data from the latest year (2024). The ranking identified 30 extreme outliers using a 3-standard-deviation threshold, reflecting the wide dispersion across countries.

The top of the ranking is dominated by high-income economies with capital-intensive industries and large financial or technology sectors. Luxembourg leads at $263,864, followed by Ireland at $234,913 and Singapore at $223,022. Norway (rank 6, $171,996), the United States (rank 8, $153,544), and Switzerland (rank 9, $150,729) also appear near the top. Belgium ranks 11th at $146,630, and Denmark 12th at $137,640. These positions reflect concentrations of high-value-added economic activity relative to the number of employed persons. Notably, Guyana ranks 4th at $204,862 and Brunei Darussalam 7th at $163,274, both resource-intensive economies with relatively small workforces, which can push per-worker output figures upward.

The middle of the ranking contains a diverse mix of upper-middle-income and emerging economies. Romania (rank 35, $98,713) and South Korea (rank 36, $98,259) sit just below the $100,000 threshold, while countries like Malaysia (rank 58, $68,622), China (rank 86, $45,842), and Brazil (rank 95, $41,441) occupy the lower half of the top 100. A notable anomaly is Egypt's rank of 69 at $59,441, placing it ahead of Japan, which ranks 45th at $84,354 — Egypt's figure is substantially lower than Japan's, so Japan is the higher-ranked of the two. At the bottom of the ranking, Burundi ($2,444), the Central African Republic ($3,166), and Madagascar ($3,292) record the lowest values. Mozambique (rank 173, $3,675), Liberia (rank 174, $3,660), and Niger (rank 172, $4,261) cluster in the same range, reflecting the concentration of very low labor productivity in the least-developed economies.

This metric has important limitations. GDP per person employed captures average output per worker but does not distinguish between part-time and full-time employment, meaning countries with high rates of part-time or informal employment may appear differently than their underlying productivity warrants. The PPP conversion reduces but does not eliminate comparability issues across countries with different price structures. For small economies or those heavily dependent on a single commodity sector, a large GDP relative to a small formal workforce can inflate rankings significantly, as may be the case for Guyana (rank 4) and Brunei Darussalam (rank 7). Employment definitions and coverage also vary by national statistical system, which can affect the denominator in ways not fully standardized across all 177 countries. Data for some lower-income countries may rely on interpolation or imputation rather than direct survey measurement, adding uncertainty to rankings at the lower end of the distribution.

Methodology

The metric is GDP per person employed in constant 2021 PPP dollars, sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators under indicator code SL.GDP.PCAP.EM.KD, with a data year of 2024. As defined in the source note: GDP per person employed is gross domestic product (GDP) divided by total employment in the economy. Purchasing power parity (PPP) GDP is GDP converted to 2021 constant international dollars using PPP rates. An international dollar has the same purchasing power over GDP that a U.S. dollar has in the United States. The ranking covers 177 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. All 177 countries (100%) have data from within the last 7 years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. The latest-year consistency check shows 168 of 177 countries (94.9%) reporting 2024 data. The viability check identified 30 extreme outliers at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. The value range spans from $2,444 (Burundi) to $263,864 (Luxembourg), a spread of 10,695%, and average year-over-year change across the dataset is 3.4%. Higher values indicate greater economic output per employed person and are considered better on this metric.

Sources

• World Bank