Countries by Gross national expenditure (current US$)

Ranking 2024

Analysis

Gross national expenditure (World Bank indicator NE.DAB.TOTL.CD) measures the sum of household final consumption expenditure, general government final consumption expenditure, and gross capital formation. This indicator is expressed in current prices, meaning no adjustment has been made to account for price changes over time. This indicator is expressed in United States dollars. The ranking covers 177 countries, all with official data. Of those, 173 out of 177 (97.7%) have data from the last seven years, and 155 out of 177 (87.6%) have data specifically from 2024. All 177 datapoints are classified as official quality. The dataset flagged 20 extreme outliers using a three-standard-deviation threshold, with average year-over-year change of 8.4%.

The top five countries are the United States ($30.1 trillion, rank 1), China ($18.2 trillion, rank 2), Germany ($4.5 trillion, rank 3), India ($4.1 trillion, rank 4), and Japan ($4.1 trillion, rank 5). The United Kingdom ranks 6th at $3.7 trillion and France 7th at $3.2 trillion. These placements reflect large economies with high levels of household consumption, government spending, and capital investment combined. India and Japan are closely matched, separated by only about $15 billion despite very different economic structures.

In the middle of the ranking, Saudi Arabia sits at rank 18 with $1.2 trillion, while South Africa ranks 39th at $392.7 billion and Morocco 56th at $173.8 billion. One notable placement is Israel at rank 26 with $527.0 billion, edging out Austria (rank 27, $520.4 billion) and Thailand (rank 28, $508.0 billion). Hong Kong SAR ranks 40th at $390.3 billion, just above Denmark at rank 41 with $381.1 billion. Puerto Rico (US) appears at rank 65 with $125.3 billion, reflecting its inclusion as a separate World Bank reporting unit. Cuba ranks 69th at $106.7 billion, placing it between Venezuela (rank 67, $110.7 billion) and Sri Lanka (rank 70, $101.6 billion).

Because this metric uses current prices with no inflation adjustment, comparisons across years can reflect currency movements or price-level changes rather than real changes in economic activity. Countries with high inflation or significant currency depreciation may show large nominal swings unrelated to underlying output or spending changes. The 8.4% average year-over-year change noted in the data reflects this sensitivity. Twelve countries in the ranking do not have 2024 data and rely on earlier estimates, which may reduce comparability. This metric also does not account for population size, meaning large countries rank higher by construction regardless of per-capita conditions.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code NE.DAB.TOTL.CD, for the reference year 2024. Gross national expenditure is defined as the sum of household final consumption expenditure, general government final consumption expenditure, and gross capital formation. This indicator is expressed in current prices, meaning no adjustment has been made to account for price changes over time. This indicator is expressed in United States dollars. The ranking includes 177 countries, all with official-quality data, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. Of these, 173 out of 177 countries (97.7%) have data from within the last seven years, and 155 out of 177 (87.6%) report data specifically from 2024. The dataset identified 20 extreme outliers at the three-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change across the dataset is 8.4%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Values range from $413.6 million (Marshall Islands, rank 177) to $30.1 trillion (United States, rank 1), a spread of approximately 7,279,970%.

Sources

• World Bank