What is GDP per capita?
It's a measure of a country's output using its gross domestic product (GDP) and dividing that figure by the population. It works out what the economic output is per person on average.
Key takeaways
GDP per capita is calculated by dividing a country's gross domestic product by its population, resulting in a measure of average economic output per person.
Economists and politicians use this metric to compare the relative economic performance of different countries and to track whether an economy is growing or shrinking while accounting for population size changes.
GDP per capita is sometimes used as a proxy for living standards because it approximates average income, but it is acknowledged as a very rough measure with significant limitations.
The metric only provides an average figure and does not account for wealth inequality, meaning it cannot reflect the distribution between the great wealth of few and poverty of many.
Where have you heard about GDP per capita?
Economists and politicians will often use this figure to compare the relative performance of different countries.
What you need to know about GDP per capita.
It can be used to show if the value of goods and services in a particular economy is growing or shrinking over time as it accounts for the variable of changing population size.
It is sometimes used as a proxy for living standards as it can approximate to average income – but it is a very rough measure. One way of thinking about it is to think of the GDP as a cake and the population determines the number of slices you have to cut the cake into – the GDP per capita is the size of the slice. For example, two countries may have a similar GDP but if one has three times the population of the other the same amount has to be shared out among three times as many people smaller slices of cake. It gives you a relative measure between the two countries.
This figure only gives an average and does not account for the great wealth of a few and the poverty of many.
Find out more about GDP per capita.
See also GDP, GDP gap and GDP price deflator.
Compare the world's GDP per capita in a graph or download it from the US CIA's World Factbook.