Data for 1953

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1953

Name: Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1953
Creator: Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC)
License: https://doi.org/10.34894/INZBF2

1953, 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), 1953 covers 149 countries. Kuwait is highest, at 49,989; Botswana is lowest, at 513. The middle country reads 2,276. Against 1952, 148 values changed (124 up, 24 down), the same countries are covered.

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Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison) · Data for 1953

HighestKuwait

49,989

LowestBotswana

513

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

149countries
1measure
1953the year it describes
148distinct values13 decimals, as published
Sep 29, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY 4.0licence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1953, as published. GGDC ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

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Showing 25 of 149 countries · select a heading to sort

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1953: every country, as published by Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC).
derived
1	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	49,989
2	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	49,284
3	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	29,358
4	United States`USA`Northern America	16,917
5	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	13,256
6	Canada`CAN`Northern America	12,726
7	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	12,522
8	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	12,471
9	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	11,963
10	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	11,709
11	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	11,623
12	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	11,389
13	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	10,429
14	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	9,540
15	Venezuela`VEN`South America	9,500
16	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	9,274
17	France`FRA`Western Europe	9,060
18	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	8,886
19	Uruguay`URY`South America	8,030
20	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	7,818
21	Argentina`ARG`South America	7,769
22	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	7,415
23	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	6,790
24	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	6,594
25	Chile`CHL`South America	6,582
26	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	6,303
27	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	5,973
28	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	5,968
29	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	4,916
30	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	4,638
31	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	4,441
32	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	4,264
33	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	4,246
34	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	4,173
35	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	4,125
36	Peru`PER`South America	4,111
37	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	4,106
38	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	4,062
39	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	4,006
40	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	3,982
41	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	3,944
42	Puerto Rico`PRI`Caribbean	3,937
43	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	3,850
44	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	3,803
45	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	3,751
46	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	3,747
47	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	3,681
48	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	3,663
49	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	3,633
50	Colombia`COL`South America	3,629
51	Mexico`MEX`Central America	3,602
52	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	3,394
53	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	3,325
54	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	3,323
55	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	3,274
56	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	3,239
57	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	3,237
58	Ecuador`ECU`South America	3,185
59	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	2,997
60	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	2,952
61	Bolivia`BOL`South America	2,869
62	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	2,868
63	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	2,801
64	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	2,794
65	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	2,745
66	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	2,695
67	Panama`PAN`Central America	2,649
68	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	2,611
69	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	2,577
70	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	2,531
71	Brazil`BRA`South America	2,418
72	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	2,348
73	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	2,340
74	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	2,295
75	Paraguay`PRY`South America	2,276
76	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	2,249
77	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	2,240
78	Honduras`HND`Central America	2,184
79	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	2,182
80	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	2,110
81	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	2,071
82	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	1,999
83	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	1,983
84	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	1,916
85	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	1,911
86	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	1,878
87	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	1,795
=88	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	1,790
=88	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	1,790
90	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	1,779
91	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	1,771
92	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	1,741
93	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	1,736
94	Palestine`PSE`Western Asia	1,733
95	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	1,728
96	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	1,613
97	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	1,570
98	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	1,492
99	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	1,490
100	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	1,482
101	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	1,451
102	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	1,425
103	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	1,400
104	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	1,388
105	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	1,326
106	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	1,325
107	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	1,317
108	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	1,272
109	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	1,240
110	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	1,211
111	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	1,184
112	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	1,157
113	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	1,148
114	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	1,135
115	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	1,127
116	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	1,105
117	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	1,090
118	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	1,076
119	Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	1,073
120	India`IND`Southern Asia	1,047
121	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	1,044
122	Niger`NER`Western Africa	1,042
123	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	1,036
124	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	1,015
125	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	1,009
126	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	982
127	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	913
128	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	877
129	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	872
130	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	870
131	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	867
132	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	816
133	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	792
134	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	765
135	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	741
136	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	736
137	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	724
138	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	722
139	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	697
140	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	685
141	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	682
142	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	662
143	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	641
144	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	638
145	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	571
146	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	563
147	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	553
148	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	547
149	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	513

02In 1953

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Kuwait49,989
2Qatar49,284
3United Arab Emirates29,358
4United States16,917
5Luxembourg13,256

Lowest

149Botswana513
148Guinea-Bissau547
147Malawi553
146Guinea563
145Comoros571

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 2,276. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031952 → 1953

Since 1952

+0 / −0countries joined / left
148values changed, of 149 in both
124 · 24rose · fell
1unchanged

Rose most

Kuwait47,856 → 49,989+2,133
United Arab Emirates27,490 → 29,358+1,868
Qatar47,990 → 49,284+1,294
Iraq2,482 → 3,394+912
Netherlands9,698 → 10,429+731

Fell most

Bolivia3,237 → 2,869−368
Cuba2,844 → 2,611−233
Montenegro1,784 → 1,570−214
Israel4,828 → 4,638−190
Mexico3,706 → 3,602−104

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 1953.
148 distinct values among 149
Values are stored exactly as published, to 13 decimals. 2 countries share 1,790. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 149 countries has every column.

05The files

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149 rows · 4.2 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download historical-gdp-per-capita-1953-nations-inquiry.csv
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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) (1953). Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1953 [data set], describing 1953. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/historical-gdp-per-capita/1953

06112 held

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