Abigail Tierney
Research expert covering U.S. politics and economics
GDP of the U.S. - statistics & facts
The U.S. economy is the largest in the world, but what does its GDP really tell us? The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is an economic indicator that measures a country’s production within a given amount of time. Usually calculated on an annual basis, the GDP includes all goods and services produced in a country regardless of their purpose. It aggregates all private and public consumption, investment, government outlays and net exports.
A concept closely related to the GDP is the Gross National Product (GNP) (also known as Gross National Income (GNI)). In contrast to the GDP, which measures production on a geographic basis, the GNP is calculated based on ownership. Thus, the production value of a factory in China that is owned by an American company would be included in the GNP of the USA and in the GDP of China. GNP used to be the official measure of production in the U.S. but was replaced by the GDP in 1991.
Ranking countries based on per capita GDP rather than economic size yields an entirely different result: In 2022, the three countries with the highest per capita GDP were Luxembourg, Norway, and Ireland. The United States of America was ranked 6th behind countries as small as Norway and Singapore. Meanwhile large, fast-growing economies like India, Brazil and China are nowhere to be found in the top 20. While GDP is a good measure of the absolute size of a country's economy and economic activity, it does not account for many other factors, making it a less-than-optimal indicator for measuring the cost or standard of living in a country, or for making cross-country comparisons.
Measures of GDP and National Income
A concept often used to make GDP comparable across countries is the GDP per capita, which is derived by simply dividing the GDP by the number of residents in a country. Although GDP per capita is often used as an indicator for a country’s standard of living, it is not always an accurate measure, as it fails to account for domestic inflation rates and differences in the cost of living across countries. A better method for comparing living standards across countries is GDP per capita at purchasing power parity which is adjusted for cost of living, unlike GDP per capita.A concept closely related to the GDP is the Gross National Product (GNP) (also known as Gross National Income (GNI)). In contrast to the GDP, which measures production on a geographic basis, the GNP is calculated based on ownership. Thus, the production value of a factory in China that is owned by an American company would be included in the GNP of the USA and in the GDP of China. GNP used to be the official measure of production in the U.S. but was replaced by the GDP in 1991.
International Context
The United States has the highest GDP in the world, sitting at more than 29 trillion U.S. dollars in 2024. However, it is expected though that, given China’s GDP growth rates, the GDP of China will eventually outgrow the U.S. GDP within the next couple of years.Ranking countries based on per capita GDP rather than economic size yields an entirely different result: In 2022, the three countries with the highest per capita GDP were Luxembourg, Norway, and Ireland. The United States of America was ranked 6th behind countries as small as Norway and Singapore. Meanwhile large, fast-growing economies like India, Brazil and China are nowhere to be found in the top 20. While GDP is a good measure of the absolute size of a country's economy and economic activity, it does not account for many other factors, making it a less-than-optimal indicator for measuring the cost or standard of living in a country, or for making cross-country comparisons.
