Swivel Business
Have you tried Swivel Business?
Gross domestic product
Notes: 1. OECD total is excluding Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovak Republic.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is the standard measure of the value of the goods and services produced by a country during a period. Per capita GDP is a broad indicator of economic living standards.
Each country calculates GDP in its own currency and, in order to compare countries, these estimates have to be converted into a common currency. Often, the conversion is made using exchange rates, but these give a misleading comparison of the real volumes of goods and services in the GDP. Comparisons of real GDP between countries can best be made using purchasing power parities (PPPs) to convert each country’s GDP into a common currency. PPPs are currency converters that equalise the purchasing power of the different currencies. (see also Rates of conversion).
Definition
What does gross domestic product mean?
"Gross” signifies that no deduction has been made for the depreciation of machinery, buildings and other capital products used in production. "Domestic” means that it is production by the residents of the country. As many products are used to produce other products it is necessary to define production in terms of value added.
GDP can be measured in three different ways: as output less intermediate consumption (i.e. value added) plus taxes less subsidies on products (such as VAT); as the income earned from production by summing employee compensation, gross operating surplus of enterprises and government and net taxes on production and imports (VAT, payroll tax, import duties, etc); or as the expenditure on the goods and services produced by summing consumption expenditures, gross fixed capital formation, changes in inventories and exports less imports.
Comparability
Virtually all OECD countries now follow the 1993 System of National Accounts. However, since Luxembourg and, to a lesser extent, Switzerland have a relatively large number of frontier workers, their GDP per capita is overstated compared with other countries. Such workers contribute to the GDP but are excluded from the population figures.
For some countries, the latest year has been estimated by the Secretariat. For several countries, the historical data have also been estimated by the OECD; if countries revise their methodologies but only supply revised data for recent years, the historical data have been estimated by mechanically linking the new and old series.
Long-term trends
In terms of total GDP, the United States is, by far, the largest member country. Japan is the second largest economy followed, at some distance, by the four large EU members – Germany, United Kingdom, France and Italy. The next four largest are Spain, Mexico, Canada and Korea. These rankings have not changed significantly over the period shown.
Per capita GDP for the OECD as a whole was close to 30 000 US dollars per head in 2005. Five OECD countries had per capita GDP in excess of 36 000 US dollars – Luxembourg, Norway, United States, Ireland and Iceland. Half of the 30 OECD members had per capita GDP between 28 000 and 36 000 US dollars, while 10 countries had per capita GDP below 28 000 US dollars. Turkey, Mexico and Poland had the lowest per capita GDP. Note that both GDP and PPPs contain statistical errors, and differences between countries in per capita GDP of 5% or less are not significant.
Note that in the tables, the OECD total excludes the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and the Slovak Republic.
Further information
Analytical publications
- OECD (2003), The Sources of Economic Growth in OECD Countries, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2007), OECD Economic Outlook: December No. 80 – Volume 2006 Issue 2, OECD, Paris.
- Maddison, Angus (2003), The World Economy: Historical Perspectives, OECD, Paris, also available on CD-ROM, www.theworldeconomy.org.
- OECD (2006), African Economic Outlook 2005/2006, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2007), Understanding National Accounts, OECD, Paris.
- OECD (2000), OECD Glossaries, System of National Accounts, 1993 – Glossary, OECD, Paris.
- UN, OECD, IMF, Eurostat (eds.) (1993), System of National Accounts 1993, United Nations, Geneva, http://unstats.un.org/unsd/sna1993.
- OECD Economic Outlook – Sources and Methods, www.oecd.org/eco/sources-and-methods.
Source
- OECD Factbook 2007: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics - ISBN 92-64-02946-X - © OECD 2007
Summary
-
1970 to 2005
(35 years)Yearly -
36 34
