List of regions by past GDP (PPP) per capita

These are lists of regions and countries by their estimated real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), the value of all final goods and services produced within a country/region in a given year divided by population size. GDP per capita 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 per capita cannot be calculated, but only roughly estimated. 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 step which leaves a relatively wide margin of interpretation.

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) per capita and that of other authors, see below.

The Maddison project is an international group of scholars who continue and build upon Maddison's work. In their 2014 report they concentrate on the pre-1820 period. Their revised figures show pre-industrial Europe to be richer, but its economic growth to be slower than previously thought. Their findings confirm Maddison's view that the income gap to Asia was already large before the Industrial Revolution. The entirety of their GDP per capita estimates can be obtained from their online database. The following data selection they present in their published paper:

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