GDP per Person, Historical (Maddison): Australia

## What this measures

Real GDP per person in Australia, in 2011 international dollars, from the Maddison Project Database 2023: the long-run record of average living standards.

## Why it matters

It is the standard measure of how rich a society is across centuries, and the only one that lets you compare the Roman Empire, Song China and today's economies on one scale.

## How to read it

Dollars are 2011 international dollars: adjusted for inflation and for price differences between countries, so a higher number means more goods and services per person. Each point is a calendar year, dated December 31. Before about 1820 most countries have only scattered benchmark years, so a line drawn between them hides everything in between.

## What it does not say

Early figures are reconstructions from wages, prices, output and population records, with wide margins of error. It is an average: it says nothing about how income was shared. Purchasing-power comparisons across very different economies are approximate.

## 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. The original sources for Australia, as the database lists them: - GDP pc: 2008 - 2022: Total Economy Database the Conference Board for all countries included in TED. Otherwise UN national accounts statistics Sources used by Angus Maddison (original dataset, last updated 2010): - 1820-1828: Butlin, N.G. 'Our 200 Years', Queesland Calendar, 1988 - 1828-1860: N.G. Butlin, "Contours of the Australian Economy 1788-1860", Australian Economic Review, Sept. 1986, pp. 112-13; - 1861-1938/9: N.G. Butlin, Australian Domestic Product, Investment and Foreign Borrowing 1861-1938/9, Cambridge, 1962,pp.460-1; amdended as indicated in N.G. Butlin, Investment in Australian Economic Development 1861-19000, Cambridge, 1964, p. 453 and with revised deflator shown in M.W. Butlin, A Preliminary Annual Databae 1900/1901 to 1973/1974, Discussion Paper 7701, Reserve Bank of Australia, 1977, p. 41 - 1938/9-1950: from expenditure aggregates in 1966/7 prices in M.W. Butlin, RS/FLW/, p.85. This is a one-off release; Palanor will load the next version when the Maddison Project publishes one.