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Data for 1938

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1938

1938, 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), 1938 covers 67 countries. United States is highest, at 10,526.1; Malawi is lowest, at 691.2. The middle country reads 2,632.6. Against 1937, 64 values changed (36 up, 28 down), 3 countries joined.

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Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison) · Data for 1938

HighestUnited States

10,526.1

LowestMalawi

691.2

Shaded 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), 1938, 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

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1938: every country, as published by Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC).
derived
1United StatesUSANorthern America10,526.1
2New ZealandNZLAustralia and New Zealand10,300.0
3United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe9,988.0
4SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe9,608.6
5AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand9,382.0
6DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe9,185.0
7NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe8,368.0
8GermanyDEUWestern Europe7,960.0
9SwedenSWENorthern Europe7,812.0
10BelgiumBELWestern Europe7,702.0
11CanadaCANNorthern America7,246.0
12FranceFRAWestern Europe7,119.0
13NorwayNORNorthern Europe6,794.0
14ArgentinaARGSouth America6,491.0
15FinlandFINNorthern Europe5,721.0
16AustriaAUTWestern Europe5,673.0
17UruguayURYSouth America5,273.0
18ChileCHLSouth America5,070.0
19ItalyITASouthern Europe4,981.0
20IrelandIRLNorthern Europe4,865.0
21IcelandISLNorthern Europe4,483.8
22VenezuelaVENSouth America4,289.0
23GreeceGRCSouthern Europe4,267.0
24JapanJPNEastern Asia4,256.8
25HungaryHUNEastern Europe4,232.0

02In 1938

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1United States10,526.1
  2. 2New Zealand10,300.0
  3. 3United Kingdom9,988.0
  4. 4Switzerland9,608.6
  5. 5Australia9,382.0

Lowest

  1. 67Malawi691.2
  2. 66Zimbabwe946.5
  3. 65Zambia951.9
  4. 64China1,003.0
  5. 63Uganda1,036.0

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 2,632.6. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031937 → 1938

Since 1937

  • +3 / −0countries joined / left
  • 64values changed, of 64 in both
  • 36 · 28rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

+ Jamaica+ Myanmar+ Thailand

04Caveats

Read before you use

Using the series

  • 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 1938.

  • 66 distinct values among 67

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 13 decimals. 2 countries share 2,295.0. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 67 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

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) (1938). Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1938 [data set], describing 1938. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/historical-gdp-per-capita/1938

06112 held

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