List of regions by past GDP (PPP)

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These are lists of regions and countries by their estimated real gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), the value of all final goods and services produced within a country/region in a given year. GDP dollar (international dollar) estimates here are derived from PPP estimates.

In the absence of sufficient data for nearly all economies until well into the 19th century, past GDP cannot be calculated, but at best only roughly estimated. In a first step, economic historians try to reconstruct the GDP per capita for a given political or geographical entity from the meagre evidence. This value is then multiplied by estimated population size, another determinant for which as a rule only little ancient data is available.

A key notion in the whole process is that of subsistence, the income level which is necessary for sustaining one's life. Since pre-modern societies, by modern standards, were characterized by a very low degree of urbanization and a large majority of people working in the agricultural sector, economic historians prefer to express income in cereal units. To achieve comparability over space and time, these numbers are then converted into monetary units such as International Dollars, a third step which leaves a relatively wide margin of interpretation.

The formula thus is: GDP (PPP) = GDP per capita (PPP) x population size

It should be stressed that, historically speaking, population size is the far more important multiplier in the equation. This is because, in contrast to industrial economies, the average income ceiling of premodern agrarian societies was quite low everywhere, possibly not higher than twice the subsistence level. Therefore, the total GDP as given below primarily reflects the respective historical population size, and is much less indicative of contemporary living standards than, for example, estimations of past GDP per capita are.

According to the 20th century macroeconomist Paul Bairoch, a pioneer in historical economic analysis,

it is obvious that by itself the volume of total GNP has no important significance, and that the volume of GNP is not by itself the expression of the economic strength of a nation.

Rather, Bairoch advocates a formula combining GNP per capita and total GNP to give a better measure of the economic performance of national economies.

003 (Maddison)

The following estimates are taken exclusively from the 2007 monograph Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD by the British economist Angus Maddison. For his separate estimate of Roman GDP (PPP) and that of other authors, see below.

GDP (PPP) in millions of 1990 International Dollars

Country / Region	1	1000	1500	1600	1700	1820	1870	1913	1950	1973	2003
Austria	213	298	1,414	2,093	2,483	4,104	8,419	23,451	25,702	85,227	173,311
Belgium	135	170	1,225	1,561	2,288	4,529	13,716	32,347	47,190	118,516	219,069
Denmark	72	144	443	569	727	1,471	3,782	11,670	29,654	70,032	124,781
Finland	8	16	136	215	255	913	1,999	6,389	17,051	51,724	106,749
France	2,366	2,763	10,912	15,559	19,539	35,468	72,100	144,489	220,492	683,965	1,315,601
Germany	1,225	1,435	8,256	12,656	13,650	26,819	72,149	237,332	265,354	944,755	1,577,423
Italy	6,475	2,250	11,550	14,410	14,630	22,535	41,814	95,487	164,957	582,713	1,110,691
Netherlands	85	128	723	2,072	4,047	4,288	9,952	24,955	60,642	175,791	348,464
Norway	40	80	183	266	361	777	2,360	5,988	17,728	44,852	118,591
Sweden	80	160	382	626	1,231	3,098	6,927	17,403	47,269	109,794	193,352
Switzerland	128	123	411	750	1,068	2,165	5,581	16,483	42,545	117,251	164,773
UK	320	800	2,815	6,007	10,709	36,232	100,180	224,618	347,850	675,941	1,280,625
12 country total	11,146	8,366	38,450	56,784	70,988	142,399	338,979	840,612	1,286,434	3,660,561	6,733,430
Portugal	180	255	606	814	1,638	3,043	4,219	7,467	17,615	63,397	144,694
Spain	1,867	1,800	4,495	7,029	7,481	12,299	19,556	41,653	61,429	266,896	684,537
Other	1,240	504	632	975	1,106	2,110	4,712	12,478	30,600	105,910	294,733
Total Western Europe	14,433	10,925	44,183	65,602	81,213	159,851	367,466	902,210	1,396,078	4,096,764	7,857,394
Eastern Europe	1,956	2,600	6,696	9,289	11,393	24,906	50,163	134,793	185,023	550,756	786,408
Former USSR	1,560	2,840	8,458	11,426	16,196	37,678	83,646	232,351	510,243	1,513,070	1,552,231
USA	272	520	800	600	527	12,548	98,374	517,383	1,455,916	3,536,622	8,430,762
Other Western offshoots	176	228	320	320	306	951	13,119	65,558	179,574	521,667	1,277,267
Total Western offshoots	448	748	1,120	920	833	13,499	111,493	582,941	1,635,490	4,058,289	9,708,029
Mexico	880	1,800	3,188	1,134	2,558	5,000	6,214	25,921	67,368	279,302	740,226
Other Latin America	1,360	2,760	4,100	2,629	3,788	9,921	21,097	94,875	347,960	1,110,158	2,391,919
Total Latin America	2,240	4,560	7,288	3,763	6,346	14,921	27,311	120,796	415,328	1,389,460	3,132,145
Japan	1,200	3,188	7,700	9,620	15,390	20,739	25,393	71,653	160,966	1,242,932	2,699,261
China	26,820	26,550	61,800	96,000	82,800	228,600	189,740	241,431	244,985	739,414	6,187,984
India	33,750	33,750	60,500	74,250	90,750	111,417	134,882	204,242	222,222	494,832	2,267,136
Other east Asia	4,845	8,968	20,822	24,582	28,440	36,451	53,155	122,874	256,938	839,258	3,926,975
West Asia	10,120	12,415	10,495	12,637	12,291	15,270	22,468	40,588	106,283	548,120	1,473,739
Total Asia (excl. Japan)	75,535	81,683	153,617	207,469	214,281	391,738	400,245	609,135	830,428	2,621,624	13,855,834
Africa	8,030	13,835	19,383	23,473	25,776	31,266	45,234	79,486	203,131	549,993	1,322,087
World	105,402	120,379	248,445	331,562	371,428	694,598	1,110,951	2,733,365	5,331,689	16,022,888	40,913,389
Country / Region	1	1000	1500	1600	1700	1820	1870	1913	1950	1973	2003

Maddison' assumptions have been criticized and admired by academics and journalists. Bryan Haig, who has characterized Maddison's figures for 19th century Australia as "inaccurate and irrelevant", by John Caldwell, in whose assessment Maddison's arguments have a "dangerous circularity", by W. W. Rostow, according to whom, "This excessive macroeconomic bias also causes him (Maddison) to mis-date, in my view, the beginning of what he calls the capitalist era at 1820 rather than, say, the mid-1780s and by W. J. MacPherson who has described Maddison's work on India and Pakistan of using "dubious comparative data." Maddison's estimates have also been critically reviewed and revised by the Italian economists Giovanni Federico and Elio Lo Cascio/Paolo Malanima (see below).

However, Economist and Journalist Evan Davis has praised Maddison's research by citing it as a "fantastic publication" and that it was "based on the detailed scholarship of the world expert on historical economic data Angus Maddison." He also added that "One shouldn't read the book in the belief the statistics are accurate to 12 decimal places."

Europe

Europe 1830–1938 (Bairoch)

The following estimates were made by the economic historian Paul Bairoch. Contrary to most other estimates on this page, the GNP (PPP) is given here in 1960 US dollars. Unlike Maddison, Bairoch allows for the fluctuation of borders, basing his estimates mostly on the historical boundaries at the given points in time.

GNP (PPP) in billions of 1960 US dollars

Country / Region	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890	1900	1910	1913	1925	1938
Austria	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4,314	4,320
Austria-Hungary	7,210	8,315	9,190	9,996	11,380	12,297	15,380	19,400	23,970	26,050	-	-
Baltic countries	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	2,298	2,760
Belgium	1,098	1,397	1,809	2,302	2,882	3,256	3,804	4,800	6,308	6,794	7,658	8,501
Bulgaria	-	-	-	588	616	611	808	970	1,165	1,260	1,613	2,628
Czechoslovakia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6,822	8,050
Denmark	256	292	361	476	612	788	1,095	1,544	2,031	2,421	2,893	2,893
Finland	256	295	370	420	550	670	860	1,110	1,395	1,670	1,910	3,339
France	8,582	10,335	11,870	13,326	16,800	17,381	19,758	23,500	26,869	27,401	36,262	39,284
Germany	7,235	8,320	10,395	12,771	16,697	19,993	26,454	35,800	45,523	49,760	45,002	77,178
Greece	-	200	220	250	365	440	640	780	910	1,540	2,340	4,200
Hungary	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3,025	4,137
Ireland	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1,862	1,907
Italy	5,570	5,951	6,666	7,466	8,273	8,745	9,435	10,820	12,598	15,624	18,510	23,701
Netherlands	913	1,105	1,318	1,502	1,823	2,188	2,660	3,164	4,150	4,660	6,696	7,987
Norway	316	378	490	642	728	886	1,041	1,286	1,601	1,834	2,370	3,812
Poland	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	7,325	12,885
Portugal	860	945	985	1,100	1,175	1,270	1,360	1,550	1,710	1,800	2,046	2,634
Romania	-	-	760	836	950	1,100	1,350	1,700	2,125	2,450	5,123	6,780
Russia/USSR	10,550	11,200	12,700	14,400	22,920	23,250	21,180	32,000	43,830	52,420	32,600	75,964
Serbia	-	-	-	320	345	382	432	560	700	725	-	-
Spain	3,600	4,150	4,700	5,400	5,300	5,400	5,675	6,500	7,333	7,450	9,498	8,511
Sweden	557	617	729	860	1,025	1,385	1,700	2,358	3,261	3,824	4,627	6,908
Switzerland	580	700	930	1,200	1,460	1,920	2,100	2,599	3,355	3,700	4,300	5,063
United Kingdom	8,245	10,431	12,591	16,072	19,628	23,551	29,441	36,273	40,623	44,074	43,700	56,103
Yugoslavia	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3,870	5,221
Europe	58,152	66,997	77,937	91,073	114,966	126,975	146,723	188,534	231,550	256,845	257,434	376,947
Western Europe	38,910	-	-	63,670	-	-	-	126,900	-	163,780	179,830	231,560
Eastern Europe	19,240	-	-	27,400	-	-	-	61,640	-	93,060	77,600	145,390
Country / Region	1830	1840	1850	1860	1870	1880	1890	1900	1910	1913	1925	1938

Europe 1500–1870 (Lo Cascio/Malanima)

The following estimates are taken from a revision of Angus Maddison's numbers for the whole of Europe by the Italian economists Elio Lo Cascio and Paolo Malanima. According to their calculations, the basic level of European GDP (PPP) was historically higher, but its increase was less pronounced.

Year	GDP (PPP) in millions of 1990 International Dollars
1500	111,680
1600	133,760
1700	159,440
1750	205,530
1800	253,900
1870	619,970

Roman and Byzantine Empires

Much of the recent work in estimating past GDP has been done in the study of the Roman economy, following the pioneering studies by Keith Hopkins (1980) and Raymond Goldsmith (1984).^[14] The estimates by Peter Temin, Angus Maddison, Branko Milanovic and Peter Fibiger Bang follow the basic method established by Goldsmith, varying mainly only in their set of initial numbers; these are then stepped up to estimations of the expenditure checked by those on the income side. Walter Scheidel/Steven Friesen determine GDP on the relationship between certain significant economic indicators which were historically found to be plausible; two independent control assumptions provide the upper and lower limit of the probable size of the Roman GDP.^[15]

Estimates of Roman GDP (PPP)¹⁾

Unit		Goldsmith 1984	Hopkins 1995/6	Temin 2006	Maddison 2007	Milanovic 2007	Bang 2008	Scheidel/Friesen 2009
Population (Approx. year)		55m (14 AD)	60m (14 AD)	55m (100 AD)	44m (14 AD)	55m (14 AD)	60m (150 AD)	70m (150 AD)
GDP (PPP) in	Sesterces	HS 20.9bn	HS 13.5bn	HS 9.2bn	HS 16.7bn	HS 20.9bn	HS 13.7bn	~HS 20bn
	Wheat equivalent	46.4 Mt	29.5 Mt	33.8 Mt	37.1 Mt	–	30 Mt	50 Mt
	Million 1990 International Dollars	–	–	–	$25,100	$34,815	–	$43,400

¹⁾ Decimal fractions rounded to the nearest tenth. Cursive numbers not directly given by the authors; they are obtained by multiplying the respective value of GDP per capita by estimated population size

The GDP per capita of the Byzantine Empire, the continuation of the Roman Empire in the east, has been estimated by the World Bank economist Branko Milanovic to range between $680 and 770 (in 1990 International Dollars) at its peak around 1000 AD, that is the reign of Basil II. The Byzantine population size at the time is estimated to have been 12 to 18 million. This would yield a total G