Data for 1870
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1870
1870, as GGDC’s 2023 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten
Historical GDP per capita follows each country's output per person back to 1820, in 2011 international dollars, from the Maddison Project Database. It joins economic historians' reconstructions of old national accounts onto modern statistics, so that incomes two centuries apart can be set on one scale.
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1870 covers 67 countries. United Kingdom is highest, at 5,829; Nepal is lowest, at 641. The middle country reads 1,356. Against 1820, 52 values changed (48 up, 4 down), 13 countries joined.
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison) · Data for 1870
HighestUnited Kingdom
5,829LowestNepal
641Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.
01Position · derived
The table
Every country and every column of Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1870, as published. GGDC ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.
Showing 25 of 67 countries · select a heading to sort
| derived | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GBRNorthern Europe | 5,829 |
| 2 | AUSAustralia and New Zealand | 5,217 |
| 3 | NZLAustralia and New Zealand | 4,941 |
| 4 | USANorthern America | 4,803 |
| 5 | NLDWestern Europe | 4,422 |
| 6 | BELWestern Europe | 4,291 |
| 7 | URYSouth America | 3,677 |
| 8 | DNKNorthern Europe | 3,193 |
| 9 | FRAWestern Europe | 2,990 |
| 10 | AUTWestern Europe | 2,970 |
| 11 | CHEWestern Europe | 2,954 |
| 12 | DEUWestern Europe | 2,931 |
| 13 | IRLNorthern Europe | 2,829 |
| 14 | ITASouthern Europe | 2,826 |
| 15 | CANNorthern America | 2,702 |
| 16 | ARGSouth America | 2,340 |
| 17 | NORNorthern Europe | 2,177 |
| 18 | SWENorthern Europe | 2,144 |
| 19 | GRCSouthern Europe | 1,938 |
| 20 | CHLSouth America | 1,868 |
| 21 | FINNorthern Europe | 1,817 |
| 22 | ESPSouthern Europe | 1,806 |
| 23 | VENSouth America | 1,769 |
| 24 | HUNEastern Europe | 1,741 |
| 25 | PERSouth America | 1,675 |
| 26 | JPNEastern Asia | 1,580 |
| 27 | POLEastern Europe | 1,575 |
| 28 | ISLNorthern Europe | 1,563 |
| 29 | LBRWestern Africa | 1,558 |
| 30 | PRTSouthern Europe | 1,554 |
| 31 | LBNWestern Asia | 1,514 |
| 32 | SGPSouth-eastern Asia | 1,423 |
| 33 | SYRWestern Asia | 1,403 |
| 34 | LKASouthern Asia | 1,356 |
| 35 | BGREastern Europe | 1,339 |
| 36 | ZAFSouthern Africa | 1,286 |
| 37 | HKGEastern Asia | 1,256 |
| 38 | PSEWestern Asia | 1,211 |
| 39 | EGYNorthern Africa | 1,195 |
| 40 | TURWestern Asia | 1,165 |
| 41 | DZANorthern Africa | 1,140 |
| 42 | JORWestern Asia | 1,116 |
| 43 | BRASouth America | 1,084 |
| 44 | COLSouth America | 1,078 |
| 45 | MYSSouth-eastern Asia | 1,055 |
| 46 | MEXCentral America | 1,046 |
| 47 | TUNNorthern Africa | 1,009 |
| 48 | PHLSouth-eastern Asia | 995 |
| 49 | THASouth-eastern Asia | 969 |
| 50 | TWNEastern Asia | 968 |
| =51 | IRNSouthern Asia | 956 |
| =51 | IRQWestern Asia | 956 |
| 53 | CHNEastern Asia | 945 |
| 54 | MARNorthern Africa | 897 |
| 55 | INDSouthern Asia | 850 |
| 56 | JAMCaribbean | 845 |
| 57 | SAUWestern Asia | 829 |
| 58 | ROUEastern Europe | 828 |
| 59 | KOREastern Asia | 820 |
| 60 | IDNSouth-eastern Asia | 810 |
| 61 | VNMSouth-eastern Asia | 805 |
| 62 | MMRSouth-eastern Asia | 803 |
| 63 | RUSEastern Europe | 789 |
| 64 | ECUSouth America | 760 |
| 65 | PRKEastern Asia | 758 |
| 66 | ALBSouthern Europe | 711 |
| 67 | NPLSouthern Asia | 641 |
02In 1870
At either end
The 5 countries at each end of the headline.
Highest
- 1
United Kingdom5,829
- 2
Australia5,217
- 3
New Zealand4,941
- 4
United States4,803
- 5
Netherlands4,422
Lowest
- 67
Nepal641
- 66
Albania711
- 65
North Korea758
- 64
Ecuador760
- 63
Russia789
A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 1,356. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.
031820 → 1870
Since 1820
- +13 / −0countries joined / left
- 52values changed, of 54 in both
- 48 · 4rose · fell
- 2unchanged
Rose most
Australia826 → 5,217+4,391
New Zealand826 → 4,941+4,115
United Kingdom3,306 → 5,829+2,523
United States2,674 → 4,803+2,129
Belgium2,358 → 4,291+1,933
04Caveats
Read before you use
Three rows describe part of a country
Italy's value comes from a series for central and northern Italy, which the Sources sheet uses from 1861 to 1871. Indonesia's figure covers Java and South Africa's the Cape Colony. As in 1820, many other rows are single-year estimates without an annual series around them.
One year of the 2023 release
Every year in this series comes from GGDC’s 2023 release, recalculated on one method, so a change from one year to the next is not a revision. It can differ from what was first published for 1870.
66 distinct values among 67
Values are stored exactly as published, to 13 decimals. 2 countries share 956. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 67 countries has every column.
05The files
Download and cite
- .csv
For a spreadsheet or code
67 rows · 2.6 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download historical-gdp-per-capita-1870-nations-inquiry.csv - ↗
The publisher’s original
GGDC’s own file, on its own site.
421302
What this site changed: Reshaped to one row per country, with its ISO code; no value recalculated, rescaled or rounded. In full
Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words
Cite this edition
Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC) (1870). Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1870 [data set], describing 1870. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/historical-gdp-per-capita/1870
06112 held
Other years
‹ The year before
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 182054 countries
The year after ›
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 190651 countries
All of them
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison): every year112 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country