Comparisons of GDP per capita are also frequently made on the basis of purchasing power parity (PPP), to adjust for differences in the cost of living in different countries, seeList of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita. PPP largely removes the exchange rate problem but not others; it does not reflect the value of economic output in international trade, and it also requires more estimation than GDP per capita. On the whole, PPP per capita figures are more narrowly spread than nominal GDP per capita figures.
The figures presented here do not take into account differences in the cost of living in different countries, and the results vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country's currency. Such fluctuations change a country's ranking from one year to the next, even though they often make little or no difference to the standard of living of its population.
Non-sovereign entities (the world, continents, and some dependent territories) and states with limited international recognition are included in the list in cases in which they appear in the sources. These economies are not ranked in the charts here (except Kosovo and Taiwan), but are listed in sequence by GDP for comparison. In addition, non-sovereign entities are marked in italics. Four UN members (Cuba, Liechtenstein, Monaco and North Korea) do not belong to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), hence their economies are not ranked below. Kosovo, despite not being a member of the United Nations, is a member of IMF. Taiwan is not a IMF member but it is still listed in the official IMF indices.
Several leading GDP-per-capita (nominal) jurisdictions may be considered tax havens, and their GDP data subject to material distortion by tax-planning activities. Examples include Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland and Luxembourg.[3]
Nearly all country links in the table (except that of Zanzibar) take to articles titled "Income in country or territory" or to "Economy of country or territory".
Many of the leading GDP-per-capita (nominal) jurisdictions are tax havens whose economic data is artificially inflated by tax-driven corporate accounting entries. For instance, the Irish GDP data above is subject to material distortion by the tax planning activities of foreign multinationals in Ireland. To address this, in 2017 the Central Bank of Ireland created "modified GNI" (or GNI*) as a more appropriate statistic, and the OECD and IMF have adopted it for Ireland. 2015 Irish GDP is 143% of 2015 Irish GNI*.
A stunning $12 trillion—almost 40 percent of all foreign direct investment positions globally—is completely artificial: it consists of financial investment passing through empty corporate shells with no real activity. These investments in empty corporate shells almost always pass through well-known tax havens. The eight major pass-through economies—the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Hong Kong SAR, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, and Singapore—host more than 85 percent of the world’s investment in special purpose entities, which are often set up for tax reasons.
^[1], (Select all countries, "GDP, Per Capita GDP–US Dollars", and "2021" to generate the table), United Nations Statistics Division. Access date: 12 February 2023.
^United Nations Statistics Division–National Accounts–Basic Data Selection, unstats.un.org. Manually select the 27 member states, the latest available year (2020) and the parameter "GDP, Per Capita GDP–US Dollars", then press "Send request" to generate the table. Export the table as an Excel file ("Export to .xlsx" button), where you can use the Average formula to determine the GDP per capita at EU level. United Nations. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
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