Countries by Gross capital formation (% of GDP)

Ranking 2024

Values shown in %.

Analysis

Gross capital formation measures the share of GDP directed toward investment in produced assets. According to the World Bank source note, it includes acquisitions less disposals of produced assets for purposes of fixed capital formation, inventories or valuables, expressed as a percentage of GDP, which is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period. The indicator code is NE.GDI.TOTL.ZS. Data covers 178 countries, with 97.8% of entries drawn from the last seven years and 100% classified as official data. The dataset flags 18 extreme outliers using a 3-standard-deviation threshold, and values range from 0.25% to 45.27%, a spread of over 17,800%.

The top of the ranking is dominated by a mix of small economies and large developing ones. Bhutan leads at 45.27% (rank 1), followed by Iran at 44.35% (rank 2) and Mauritania at 43.08% (rank 3). Algeria ranks 4th at 41.10% and China 6th at 40.61%. India ranks 18th at 32.91%, and Indonesia 23rd at 31.40%. Several smaller or less-covered economies appear near the top, including Curacao at rank 5 (41.07%) and Palau at rank 12 (35.62%), which may partly reflect data characteristics rather than purely high investment rates.

The middle of the ranking includes many high-income economies. Switzerland ranks 47th at 26.99%, Japan 56th at 26.18%, and the United States 106th at 21.84%. The United Kingdom ranks 132nd at 19.12% and Brazil 145th at 16.98%. Near the bottom, Lebanon ranks 177th at just 1.90% and Sudan 176th at 2.89%. Notable placements include Ireland at rank 139 (18.25%) and South Africa at rank 162 (14.07%). Venezuela ranks 175th at 4.90%, and Yemen 173rd at 6.18%.

This metric has meaningful limitations. Gross capital formation captures the aggregate value of investment as reported in national accounts, but data quality and timeliness vary across countries. The 18 extreme outliers identified in the viability checks suggest some values may reflect unusual national accounting practices, data revisions, or structural economic features rather than actual investment activity. Small or aid-dependent economies may show high ratios when large externally financed projects are included. For conflict-affected or data-scarce countries, figures may be estimates with lower reliability. The metric does not distinguish between productive fixed investment and inventory accumulation, nor does it account for the quality or efficiency of capital deployed.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code NE.GDI.TOTL.ZS, for the reference year 2024. The metric is defined as follows per the source note: gross capital formation includes acquisitions less disposals of produced assets for purposes of fixed capital formation, inventories or valuables, expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is the total income earned through the production of goods and services in an economic territory during an accounting period. The ranking covers 178 countries, with 174 out of 178 (97.8%) having data from the last seven years, and 156 out of 178 (87.6%) reporting data in the latest year (2024). All 178 datapoints are classified as official quality. The dataset contains 18 extreme outliers identified at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. Values range from 0.25% to 45.27%. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 15.0%, within the 50% volatility threshold. No microstates below 1 million population are present in this dataset.

Sources

• World Bank