Countries by GNI per capita (constant LCU)

Ranking 2024

Values shown in per capita.

Analysis

This metric reports gross national income per capita expressed in each country's own constant local currency unit (LCU). According to 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. The core indicator has been divided by the general population to achieve a per capita estimate. This indicator is expressed in constant prices, meaning the serie' — adjusting for domestic inflation to enable comparison across time within a single country. The indicator code is NY.GNP.PCAP.KN, sourced from the World Bank World Development Indicators for data year 2024. Coverage spans 163 countries, with 160 of 163 (98.2%) having data from the last seven years and 100% of datapoints classified as official. The viability check identified 10 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, which is directly relevant to interpreting the ranking.

Iran leads the ranking at 811,674,418.60 per capita, a value more than 12 times that of second-ranked Vietnam (63,788,058.05) and nearly 19 times that of third-ranked South Korea (43,914,093.36). Indonesia ranks 4th at 43,379,426.35 and Paraguay 5th at 32,053,818.55. These large nominal values reflect the scale and denomination of each country's local currency rather than a direct comparison of purchasing power or living standards. Countries using currencies with large nominal denominations — such as the Iranian rial or the Vietnamese dong — naturally produce high LCU-denominated GNI per capita figures. Norway, for instance, ranks only 25th at 968,989.66 despite being one of the world's wealthiest nations by other measures.

The middle and lower portions of the ranking surface several counterintuitive placements. The United States ranks 84th at 71,121.52, while Luxembourg ranks 85th at 69,363.31, and Singapore ranks 77th at 85,223.16 — all well-known high-income economies that rank low here solely because their currencies carry smaller nominal denominations relative to countries like Iran or Vietnam. At the bottom, Venezuela ranks 161st at 720.93, Tajikistan 162nd at 599.78, and Sudan 163rd at 242.71. Somalia ranks 7th at 16,137,181.23, placing it above Japan (16th, 4,702,585.55) and Chile (10th, 10,634,885.46), an outcome driven entirely by currency denomination differences rather than economic output levels.

The primary limitation of this metric is that constant LCU values are not comparable across countries. Each country's value is denominated in its own currency unit, making cross-country rankings misleading as a measure of relative prosperity. The 334,425,573% spread between the highest and lowest values, flagged in the viability check, underscores this. The 10 extreme outliers identified at the 3-sigma threshold are a direct consequence of currency scale differences. Additionally, the consistency check found that only 133 of 163 countries (81.6%) have data from the latest year (2024), meaning some values may reflect earlier periods. Constant price adjustments vary by base year across countries, introducing further non-comparability.

Methodology

Metric: GNI per capita in constant local currency units (LCU). Indicator code: NY.GNP.PCAP.KN. Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators. Data year: 2024. The source definition states: '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. The core indicator has been divided by the general population to achieve a per capita estimate. This indicator is expressed in constant prices, meaning the serie.' Coverage: 163 countries. Recency: 160 of 163 countries (98.2%) have data from the last seven years. Data quality: 100% of datapoints are classified as official. Consistency: 133 of 163 countries (81.6%) have data from the latest year (2024). The viability check identified 10 extreme outliers at the 3-sigma threshold, and the average year-over-year change across the dataset is 5.1%. The value range spans from 242.71 (Sudan) to 811,674,418.60 (Iran), a spread of 334,425,573%, which reflects differences in currency denomination rather than real economic differences between countries. Rankings should not be interpreted as cross-country comparisons of welfare or income levels.

Sources

• World Bank