Data
GDP per capita
In constant international-$ – Penn World Table
What you should know about this indicator
- Gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of the total value added from the production of goods and services in a country or region each year. GDP per capita is GDP divided by population.
- This indicator provides information on economic growth and income levels in the medium run. Some country estimates are available as far back as 1950.
- This data is adjusted for inflation and for differences in living costs between countries.
- This data is expressed in international-$ at 2017 prices, using a multiple benchmark approach that incorporates PPP estimates from all available benchmark years.
- For GDP per capita estimates in the very long run, see the Maddison Project Database's indicator.
- For more regularly updated estimates of GDP per capita since 1990, see the World Bank's indicator.
GDP per capita
In constant international-$ – Penn World Table
Average economic output per person in a country or region per year. This data is adjusted for inflation and for differences in living costs between countries.
Source
Feenstra et al. (2015), Penn World Table (2021) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
November 28, 2022
Next expected update
May 2025
Date range
1950–2019
Unit
international-$ in 2017 prices
Related research and writing
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are international-$ and why are they used to measure incomes?
Much of the economic data we use to understand the world — for instance, on the goods and services bought or produced by households, firms and governments, or the incomes they receive — is initially recorded in terms of the units in which these transactions took place. That means this data starts out being expressed in a variety of local currencies — such as rupees, US dollars, or yuan, etc. — and without adjusting for inflation over time. This is known as being in “current prices”, or in “nominal” terms.
Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
How we process data at Our World in Data
All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.
At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.
Notes on our processing step for this indicator
We estimated this indicator as the GDP (output, multiple price benchmarks) divided by the population of each country.
This variable uses ICP PPP benchmarks from multiple years to correct for changing prices over time.
We replaced values for Bermuda with estimates on GDP per capita (output, single price benchmark) due to the unusual changes on prices in this country.
We excluded values considered outliers in the original dataset (i_outlier = "Outlier"), due to implausible relative prices (PPPs divided by exchange rates).
Reuse this work
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Citations
How to cite this page
To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:
“Data Page: GDP per capita”, part of the following publication: Max Roser, Bertha Rohenkohl, Pablo Arriagada, Joe Hasell, Hannah Ritchie and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina (2023) - “Economic Growth”. Data adapted from Feenstra et al. (2015), Penn World Table (2021). Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-penn-world-table [online resource]How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
Feenstra et al. (2015), Penn World Table (2021) – with major processing by Our World in DataFull citation
Feenstra et al. (2015), Penn World Table (2021) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “GDP per capita – Penn World Table – In constant international-$” [dataset]. Feenstra et al. (2015), Penn World Table (2021), “Penn World Table” [original data]. Retrieved April 7, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-penn-world-table