Data for 1920
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1920
1920, 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), 1920 covers 57 countries. United States is highest, at 10,153; Malawi is lowest, at 430. The middle country reads 2,284. Against 1913, 48 values changed (25 up, 23 down), 9 countries joined, 24 left.
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison) · Data for 1920
HighestUnited States
10,153LowestMalawi
430Shaded 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), 1920, 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 57 countries · select a heading to sort
| derived | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | USANorthern America | 10,153 |
| 2 | NZLAustralia and New Zealand | 8,992 |
| 3 | AUSAustralia and New Zealand | 7,597 |
| 4 | CHEWestern Europe | 7,364 |
| 5 | GBRNorthern Europe | 7,017 |
| 6 | NLDWestern Europe | 6,727 |
| 7 | DNKNorthern Europe | 6,363 |
| 8 | BELWestern Europe | 6,315 |
| 9 | CANNorthern America | 6,154 |
| 10 | ARGSouth America | 5,536 |
| 11 | FRAWestern Europe | 5,144 |
| 12 | SWENorthern Europe | 4,788 |
| 13 | NORNorthern Europe | 4,739 |
| 14 | DEUWestern Europe | 4,457 |
| 15 | CHLSouth America | 4,248 |
| 16 | AUTWestern Europe | 3,845 |
| 17 | ITASouthern Europe | 3,789 |
| 18 | URYSouth America | 3,580 |
| 19 | ESPSouthern Europe | 3,239 |
| 20 | POLEastern Europe | 3,000 |
| 21 | JPNEastern Asia | 2,974 |
| 22 | FINNorthern Europe | 2,942 |
| 23 | HUNEastern Europe | 2,724 |
| 24 | CRICentral America | 2,589 |
| 25 | MEXCentral America | 2,552 |
| 26 | ISLNorthern Europe | 2,451 |
| 27 | PANCentral America | 2,445 |
| 28 | CUBCaribbean | 2,378 |
| 29 | GRCSouthern Europe | 2,284 |
| 30 | PHLSouth-eastern Asia | 2,055 |
| 31 | GTMCentral America | 2,028 |
| 32 | NICCentral America | 2,007 |
| 33 | PRTSouthern Europe | 1,959 |
| 34 | HNDCentral America | 1,957 |
| 35 | PERSouth America | 1,954 |
| =36 | BOLSouth America | 1,932 |
| =36 | SGPSouth-eastern Asia | 1,932 |
| 38 | VENSouth America | 1,903 |
| 39 | MYSSouth-eastern Asia | 1,786 |
| 40 | LKASouthern Asia | 1,741 |
| 41 | COLSouth America | 1,707 |
| 42 | ECUSouth America | 1,680 |
| 43 | BGREastern Europe | 1,594 |
| 44 | TWNEastern Asia | 1,513 |
| 45 | SLVCentral America | 1,487 |
| 46 | PRKEastern Asia | 1,470 |
| 47 | KOREastern Asia | 1,429 |
| 48 | LBRWestern Africa | 1,424 |
| 49 | IDNSouth-eastern Asia | 1,409 |
| 50 | GHAWestern Africa | 1,299 |
| 51 | BRASouth America | 1,242 |
| 52 | ROUEastern Europe | 1,064 |
| 53 | INDSouthern Asia | 1,012 |
| 54 | NGAWestern Africa | 988 |
| 55 | ZWEEastern Africa | 644 |
| 56 | RUSEastern Europe | 637 |
| 57 | MWIEastern Africa | 430 |
02In 1920
At either end
The 5 countries at each end of the headline.
Highest
- 1
United States10,153
- 2
New Zealand8,992
- 3
Australia7,597
- 4
Switzerland7,364
- 5
United Kingdom7,017
A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 2,284. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.
031913 → 1920
Since 1913
- +9 / −24countries joined / left
- 48values changed, of 48 in both
- 25 · 23rose · fell
- 0unchanged
Rose most
New Zealand8,212 → 8,992+780
Mexico2,004 → 2,552+548
Japan2,431 → 2,974+543
Malaysia1,289 → 1,786+498
Philippines1,575 → 2,055+480
Fell most
Austria5,523 → 3,845−1,678
Germany5,815 → 4,457−1,358
Uruguay4,838 → 3,580−1,258
United Kingdom8,212 → 7,017−1,195
Canada7,088 → 6,154−934
04Caveats
Read before you use
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 1920.
56 distinct values among 57
Values are stored exactly as published, to 13 decimals. 2 countries share 1,932. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 57 countries has every column.
05The files
Download and cite
- .csv
For a spreadsheet or code
57 rows · 2.5 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download historical-gdp-per-capita-1920-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) (1920). Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1920 [data set], describing 1920. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/historical-gdp-per-capita/1920
06112 held
Other years
‹ The year before
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 191372 countries
The year after ›
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 192157 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