Data for 1956

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1956

Name: Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1956
Creator: Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC)
License: https://doi.org/10.34894/INZBF2

1956, 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), 1956 covers 149 countries. Kuwait is highest, at 52,404; Botswana is lowest, at 537. The middle country reads 2,447. Against 1955, 149 values changed (124 up, 25 down), the same countries are covered.

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Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison) · Data for 1956

HighestKuwait

52,404

LowestBotswana

537

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

149countries
1measure
1956the year it describes
149distinct 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), 1956, 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), 1956: every country, as published by Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC).
derived
1	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	52,404
2	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	50,628
3	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	32,481
4	United States`USA`Northern America	17,397
5	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	14,507
6	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	14,346
7	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	14,343
8	Canada`CAN`Northern America	13,791
9	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	12,924
10	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	12,639
11	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	12,428
12	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	11,953
13	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	11,858
14	Venezuela`VEN`South America	11,136
15	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	10,480
16	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	10,323
17	France`FRA`Western Europe	10,278
18	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	10,237
19	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	9,846
20	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	8,603
21	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	8,440
22	Argentina`ARG`South America	8,424
23	Uruguay`URY`South America	8,225
24	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	8,064
25	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	7,745
26	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	6,663
27	Chile`CHL`South America	6,285
28	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	6,212
29	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	6,153
30	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	5,592
31	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	4,901
32	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	4,889
33	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	4,764
34	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	4,699
35	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	4,645
36	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	4,632
37	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	4,615
38	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	4,565
39	Puerto Rico`PRI`Caribbean	4,525
40	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	4,450
41	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	4,390
42	Peru`PER`South America	4,385
43	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	4,340
44	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	4,313
45	Mexico`MEX`Central America	4,213
46	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	4,141
47	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	4,106
48	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	4,087
49	Colombia`COL`South America	3,811
50	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	3,810
51	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	3,808
52	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	3,688
53	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	3,668
54	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	3,564
55	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	3,539
56	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	3,494
57	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	3,491
58	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	3,410
59	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	3,392
60	Ecuador`ECU`South America	3,381
61	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	3,347
62	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	3,241
63	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	3,186
64	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	2,949
65	Panama`PAN`Central America	2,836
66	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	2,799
67	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	2,777
68	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	2,740
69	Bolivia`BOL`South America	2,719
70	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	2,715
71	Brazil`BRA`South America	2,672
72	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	2,588
73	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	2,541
74	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	2,475
75	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	2,447
76	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	2,399
77	Paraguay`PRY`South America	2,335
78	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	2,313
79	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	2,248
80	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	2,212
81	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	2,150
82	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	2,091
83	Honduras`HND`Central America	2,080
84	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	2,008
85	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	1,980
86	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	1,970
87	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	1,949
88	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	1,932
89	Palestine`PSE`Western Asia	1,930
90	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	1,926
91	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	1,906
92	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	1,902
93	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	1,897
94	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	1,884
95	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	1,824
96	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	1,769
97	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	1,709
98	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	1,556
99	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	1,533
100	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	1,508
101	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	1,492
102	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	1,482
103	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	1,444
104	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	1,443
105	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	1,433
106	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	1,422
107	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	1,382
108	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	1,309
109	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	1,280
110	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	1,278
111	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	1,274
112	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	1,256
113	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	1,229
114	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	1,224
115	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	1,218
116	Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	1,203
117	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	1,189
118	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	1,173
119	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	1,156
120	India`IND`Southern Asia	1,117
121	Niger`NER`Western Africa	1,103
122	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	1,100
123	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	1,086
124	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	1,070
125	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	1,047
126	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	1,017
127	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	955
128	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	950
129	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	940
130	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	926
131	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	925
132	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	912
133	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	883
134	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	878
135	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	810
136	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	803
137	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	797
138	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	781
139	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	744
140	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	735
141	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	724
142	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	703
143	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	687
144	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	682
145	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	673
146	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	610
147	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	606
148	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	599
149	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	537

02In 1956

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Kuwait52,404
2Qatar50,628
3United Arab Emirates32,481
4United States17,397
5Switzerland14,507

Lowest

149Botswana537
148Malawi599
147Comoros606
146Guinea610
145Eswatini673

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 2,447. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031955 → 1956

Since 1955

+0 / −0countries joined / left
149values changed, of 149 in both
124 · 25rose · fell
0unchanged

Rose most

Trinidad and Tobago6,880 → 8,064+1,184
United Arab Emirates31,374 → 32,481+1,107
Qatar49,632 → 50,628+996
Kuwait51,417 → 52,404+987
Jordan2,590 → 3,410+820

Fell most

Lebanon7,010 → 6,663−347
Bosnia and Herzegovina2,265 → 1,932−333
Hungary4,894 → 4,632−262
Costa Rica3,921 → 3,668−253
Bolivia2,954 → 2,719−235

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 1956.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 149 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

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.csv
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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-1956-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) (1956). Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1956 [data set], describing 1956. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/historical-gdp-per-capita/1956

06112 held

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