The 50 richest countries in the world

Income and purchasing power

Earned capital is a figure measured and published annually by the vast majority of countries. It is the gross domestic product, the sum of all domestically generated income. If you convert this income to the number of inhabitants, you get a value that is hardly comparable. This is because income is certainly not measurable over various countries if the money cannot be used to buy the same things.

An income can therefore only be compared if the price structure in the respective countries is taken into account. A rented apartment for $500 per month may be normal in many countries, but in a poor developing country you can get half a palace for the same money, and in a rich country like Singapore at best a sparse little room. If we now adjust incomes for purchasing power, we obtain an internationally comparable fictitious currency: the PPP dollar. PPP stands for Purchasing Power Parity.

The calculations in this table are based on data for the year 2020. Evaluations for 2021 are expected as usual next spring, when the economic data have been collected and published.

Wealth in small countries

It is not surprising that so many small countries are in the top ranks. The top 20 richest countries include 13 countries with fewer than 10 million inhabitants. Most of the small countries are not internationally positioned industrial nations, but generate most of their money from financial products. Qatar and the Arab Emirates sit on huge oil reserves. In Europe, Luxembourg and Ireland are known for providing a safe and tax-efficient home for global players such as Amazon, Apple, Google and many others. Many of the countries ranked highly here are also considered tax havens.

At the same time, many small states are much less expensive to supply to the population because transport routes or cables are quickly laid. Providing a country like Luxembourg with nationwide high-speed Internet is a completely different undertaking than in the US or Australia.

From this point of view, the good rating of the USA (8th place) is surprising, but Germany (16th place) and Australia (17) are also well placed.

1st place: Macau

Macau, however, is an exception. There is no oil and financial products are not a focus of the economy. The country consists of two small islands that together are just half the size of Manhattan. Instead, dozens of casinos are spread out here, making many times the revenue of Las Vegas. Since gambling is banned in China and Hong Kong, some 3 million tourists flock to the small country.... monthly.

In 2020, the gross domestic product in Macau dropped drastically. Due to the travel restrictions introduced by Covid19, hardly any tourists came to the country. Of the previous USD 55.15 billion, only USD 24.33 billion remained in 2020.