GDP per capita since 1820

Abstract

Since 1820, the world economy experienced spectacular growth in output and income. This chapter builds upon the work by Angus Maddison and shows that the world’s average GDP per capita increased by a factor of 10 between 1820 and the 2010. Yet, this growth was spread very unevenly, resulting in a considerable increase in average income disparities between countries. In 1820, the richest countries were about five times as wealthy as the poorest countries, whereas they were more than thirty times as well-off in 1950. This divergence was driven by a process of rapid industrialisation. Only recently, as a result of the rapid growth experienced by China and India, has global income inequality begun to decline. The chapter discusses the strong and weak spots in our current knowledge on historical GDP series and points to areas for future research.