Then which country is the world's richest? Read on as we talk about the list of the world's 20 wealthiest nations (based on IMF data).
When you go by GDP per capita PPP, these 10 countries come up as the richest as of October 2023:
Country |
GDP-PPP per capita (in USD) |
1 Luxembourg |
135,610 |
2 Ireland |
112,250 |
3 Switzerland |
102,875 |
4 Norway |
99,273 |
5 Singapore |
87,885 |
6 Qatar |
81,971 |
7 USA |
80,413 |
8 Iceland |
78,845 |
9 Denmark |
71,405 |
10 Australia |
63,490 |
11 Netherlands |
61,772 |
12 San Marino |
58,542 |
13 Austria |
58,014 |
14 Sweden |
55,220 |
15 Finland |
54.51 |
16 Macao SAR |
54,381 |
17 Belgium |
53,661 |
18 Canada |
53,251 |
19 Israel |
53,224 |
20 Germany |
52,811 |
Methodology For Ranking Richest Countries
These rankings are based on GDP per capita, as estimated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
GDP, or the gross domestic product, is a parameter for the value of all goods and services produced in a country. Now, once you divide this number by the number of full-time residents in a country, you get an idea of how rich or poor a country’s general populace is. However, what gives a much more precise idea of the wealth held by a nation is when you also take into account the inflation rates and costs of local products and services, as per Forbes report.
Considering both factors, we get a figure called the PPP or the purchasing power parity. While this may still not be absolute statistics to accurately rank the richest and poorest countries in the world (for instance, some of the wealthiest countries can be tax havens, which artificially increases their GDPs with wealth generated outside of these countries), the GDP per capita ranking 2023 (accounting for PPP) still gets us close to understanding the wealth held by various nations.
What About India?
When it comes to countries by GDP per capita PPP, the GDP per capita of India stands at $9,073 as of June 2023. As per GDP per capita ranking 2023, this makes India stand at the 129th position out of about 200 countries.
Also Read: 10 Countries That Are Serving The Biggest Loans From World Bank
Which Are The World's 10 Largest Economies?
Let’s take a look at the top 10 largest economies in the world in 2023, sourced from IMF data (as of October 2023):
Rank & Country |
GDP (USD billion) |
1 United States Of America |
26,954 |
2 China |
17,786 |
3 Germany |
4,430 |
4 Japan |
4,231 |
5 India |
3,730 |
6 United Kingdom |
3,332 |
7 France |
3,052 |
8 Italy |
2,190 |
9 Brazil |
2,132 |
10 Canada |
2,122 |