Stacked area
Two Centuries of Economic Power
Share of world GDP by region, % (2011 international dollars)
Plays the chart through its history. Pauses are where the data set a record or moved most.
The Maddison Project gives every region only in 1820, 1870, every tenth year from 1950 and each recent year; the bands are joined straight between those years. Its world total starts in 1820, so no share goes further back. Shares are Palanor calculations from GDP per person times population.
Who produced the world’s output, from the start of the industrial age to today. In 1820 Asia made most of it; Europe and its offshoots took the lead through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and Asia has been taking its share back since.
What this chart reads·6 series
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- Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): East and South Asiaas “East and South Asia”behindlatest 2022-12-31
- Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Europe (incl. former USSR)as “Europe (incl. former USSR)”behindlatest 2022-12-31
- Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Western Offshootsas “U.S., Canada, Australia, NZ”behindlatest 2022-12-31
- Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Latin Americaas “Latin America”behindlatest 2022-12-31
- Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Middle East and North Africaas “Middle East and North Africa”behindlatest 2022-12-31
- Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Sub-Saharan Africaas “Sub-Saharan Africa”behindlatest 2022-12-31
Sources·6 sources
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Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): East and South Asia. Source: Maddison Project Database 2023 (Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen). Cite as: Bolt, Jutta and Jan Luiten van Zanden (2024), "Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update", Journal of Economic Surveys, 1–41. DOI: 10.1111/joes.12618. Licence: Maddison Project Database, version 2023 by Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2023 The database asks that all original papers be cited when its data is shown in graphical form. Regional figures are the database's own aggregates of every country in it, so the original papers are those for each country, listed in the "Sources" and "Maddison original sources" sheets of the workbook (https://dataverse.nl/api/access/datafile/421302). Palanor adds the shares of East Asia and South and South-East Asia, each computed as follows. Palanor divides the place's GDP (GDP per person times population) by world GDP (world GDP per person times world population, both from the database's Regional data sheet) for the same year. This is a one-off release; Palanor will load the next version when the Maddison Project publishes one.
Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Europe (incl. former USSR). Source: Maddison Project Database 2023 (Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen). Cite as: Bolt, Jutta and Jan Luiten van Zanden (2024), "Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update", Journal of Economic Surveys, 1–41. DOI: 10.1111/joes.12618. Licence: Maddison Project Database, version 2023 by Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2023 The database asks that all original papers be cited when its data is shown in graphical form. Regional figures are the database's own aggregates of every country in it, so the original papers are those for each country, listed in the "Sources" and "Maddison original sources" sheets of the workbook (https://dataverse.nl/api/access/datafile/421302). Palanor adds the shares of Western Europe and Eastern Europe, each computed as follows. Palanor divides the place's GDP (GDP per person times population) by world GDP (world GDP per person times world population, both from the database's Regional data sheet) for the same year. This is a one-off release; Palanor will load the next version when the Maddison Project publishes one.
Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Western Offshoots. Source: Maddison Project Database 2023 (Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen). Cite as: Bolt, Jutta and Jan Luiten van Zanden (2024), "Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update", Journal of Economic Surveys, 1–41. DOI: 10.1111/joes.12618. Licence: Maddison Project Database, version 2023 by Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2023 The database asks that all original papers be cited when its data is shown in graphical form. Regional figures are the database's own aggregates of every country in it, so the original papers are those for each country, listed in the "Sources" and "Maddison original sources" sheets of the workbook (https://dataverse.nl/api/access/datafile/421302). Palanor divides the place's GDP (GDP per person times population) by world GDP (world GDP per person times world population, both from the database's Regional data sheet) for the same year. This is a one-off release; Palanor will load the next version when the Maddison Project publishes one.
Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Latin America. Source: Maddison Project Database 2023 (Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen). Cite as: Bolt, Jutta and Jan Luiten van Zanden (2024), "Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update", Journal of Economic Surveys, 1–41. DOI: 10.1111/joes.12618. Licence: Maddison Project Database, version 2023 by Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2023 The database asks that all original papers be cited when its data is shown in graphical form. Regional figures are the database's own aggregates of every country in it, so the original papers are those for each country, listed in the "Sources" and "Maddison original sources" sheets of the workbook (https://dataverse.nl/api/access/datafile/421302). Palanor divides the place's GDP (GDP per person times population) by world GDP (world GDP per person times world population, both from the database's Regional data sheet) for the same year. This is a one-off release; Palanor will load the next version when the Maddison Project publishes one.
Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Middle East and North Africa. Source: Maddison Project Database 2023 (Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen). Cite as: Bolt, Jutta and Jan Luiten van Zanden (2024), "Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update", Journal of Economic Surveys, 1–41. DOI: 10.1111/joes.12618. Licence: Maddison Project Database, version 2023 by Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2023 The database asks that all original papers be cited when its data is shown in graphical form. Regional figures are the database's own aggregates of every country in it, so the original papers are those for each country, listed in the "Sources" and "Maddison original sources" sheets of the workbook (https://dataverse.nl/api/access/datafile/421302). Palanor divides the place's GDP (GDP per person times population) by world GDP (world GDP per person times world population, both from the database's Regional data sheet) for the same year. This is a one-off release; Palanor will load the next version when the Maddison Project publishes one.
Share of World GDP, Historical (Maddison): Sub-Saharan Africa. Source: Maddison Project Database 2023 (Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen). Cite as: Bolt, Jutta and Jan Luiten van Zanden (2024), "Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2023 update", Journal of Economic Surveys, 1–41. DOI: 10.1111/joes.12618. Licence: Maddison Project Database, version 2023 by Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2023 The database asks that all original papers be cited when its data is shown in graphical form. Regional figures are the database's own aggregates of every country in it, so the original papers are those for each country, listed in the "Sources" and "Maddison original sources" sheets of the workbook (https://dataverse.nl/api/access/datafile/421302). Palanor divides the place's GDP (GDP per person times population) by world GDP (world GDP per person times world population, both from the database's Regional data sheet) for the same year. This is a one-off release; Palanor will load the next version when the Maddison Project publishes one.
Charts are drawn from Palanor's signal library and recomputed from source data on every view. Transformations (changes, indexing, year-on-year rates) are Palanor's.