Countries by GNI, Atlas method (current US$)

Ranking 2024

Analysis

GNI by the Atlas method measures total income earned by all residents within an economic territory during an accounting period. Per the source definition: 'Gross national income is the total income earned by all residents within an economic territory during an accounting period. It is equal to gross domestic product plus earned income receivable from abroad minus earned income payable abroad. This figure is converted to U.S. dollars using the World Bank Atlas method. GNI, calculated in national currency, is usually converted to U.S. dollars at offici[al exchange rates].' Values are reported in absolute current US dollars, meaning larger countries will rank higher regardless of income per person. The dataset covers 204 countries, with 190 of 204 (93.1%) reporting data for the reference year 2024, and 202 of 204 (99.0%) providing data from within the last seven years. All 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. The indicator code is NY.GNP.ATLS.CD, sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators.

The top of the ranking is concentrated among a small number of large economies. The United States (Rank 1, $28.4 trillion) and China (Rank 2, $19.3 trillion) together account for the two tallest bars by a wide margin. Germany (Rank 3, $4.6 trillion) and Japan (Rank 4, $4.5 trillion) are close together in third and fourth, followed by India (Rank 5, $3.8 trillion) and the United Kingdom (Rank 6, $3.4 trillion). The top 10 is completed by France (Rank 7, $3.1 trillion), Italy (Rank 8, $2.3 trillion), the Russian Federation (Rank 9, $2.2 trillion), and Canada (Rank 10, $2.2 trillion). High absolute GNI values at the top reflect both large populations and high per-resident income levels, though this metric does not distinguish between those two drivers.

The middle of the ranking shows a broad range of country sizes and income structures. Israel (Rank 27, $527.7 billion) sits just ahead of the Philippines (Rank 28, $518.1 billion) and Thailand (Rank 29, $509.0 billion), placing it among countries with much larger populations. Singapore (Rank 34, $451.3 billion) ranks just above Ireland (Rank 35, $435.2 billion), both notable for small populations yet high absolute GNI. At the lower end, Tuvalu (Rank 204, $86,040,855), Nauru (Rank 203, $243,773,568), and Palau (Rank 202, $262,023,957) record the smallest values. The viability check flagged 20 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, largely reflecting the enormous variance in the dataset, which spans from $86 million to $28.4 trillion, a spread of over 33,001,994%.

This metric has meaningful limitations. Because it uses absolute totals rather than per-capita figures, population size heavily influences rank position and large countries will systematically outrank smaller ones regardless of resident living standards. The Atlas method uses a multi-year average of exchange rates to reduce the effect of short-term currency fluctuations, but official exchange rates can still diverge from purchasing power, particularly for countries with managed currencies or high inflation. Countries such as Venezuela (Rank 66) and Iran (Rank 32) may have values distorted by exchange rate conditions. Fourteen countries did not report data for the 2024 reference year, and two countries have data older than seven years, meaning a small portion of rankings rely on estimates or older figures. This metric does not capture income distribution within countries or informal economic activity.

Methodology

Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code NY.GNP.ATLS.CD, data year 2024. The metric is defined as follows per the source note: 'Gross national income is the total income earned by all residents within an economic territory during an accounting period. It is equal to gross domestic product plus earned income receivable from abroad minus earned income payable abroad. This figure is converted to U.S. dollars using the World Bank Atlas method. GNI, calculated in national currency, is usually converted to U.S. dollars at offici[al exchange rates].' Values are in absolute current US dollars. The ranking covers 204 countries. Of these, 190 of 204 (93.1%) reported data for the 2024 reference year, and 202 of 204 (99.0%) have data from within the last seven years. All datapoints (100%) are classified as official quality, exceeding the 70% threshold. The viability check identified 20 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, consistent with the dataset's extreme variance: values range from $86,040,855 (Tuvalu, Rank 204) to $28,395,284,660,435 (United States, Rank 1), a spread of over 33,001,994%. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 7.2%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Higher values indicate greater total national income and rank higher in this index.

Sources

• World Bank