Data for 1957

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1957

Name: Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1957
Creator: Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC)
License: https://doi.org/10.34894/INZBF2

1957, 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), 1957 covers 149 countries. Kuwait is highest, at 50,126; Botswana is lowest, at 544. The middle country reads 2,573. Against 1956, 149 values changed (120 up, 29 down), the same countries are covered.

Download CSV Cite this year

Share this page

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison) · Data for 1957

HighestKuwait

50,126

LowestBotswana

544

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

149countries
1measure
1957the year it describes
146distinct 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), 1957, as published. GGDC ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 149 countries · select a heading to sort

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1957: every country, as published by Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC).
derived
1	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	50,126
2	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	49,973
3	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	32,329
4	United States`USA`Northern America	17,406
5	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	14,961
6	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	14,668
7	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	14,418
8	Canada`CAN`Northern America	13,719
9	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	12,899
10	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	12,895
11	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	12,779
12	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	12,696
13	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	12,137
14	Venezuela`VEN`South America	11,923
15	France`FRA`Western Europe	10,779
16	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	10,697
17	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	10,353
18	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	10,348
19	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	10,079
20	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	9,111
21	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	8,751
22	Argentina`ARG`South America	8,705
23	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	8,518
24	Uruguay`URY`South America	8,176
25	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	8,158
26	Chile`CHL`South America	6,758
27	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	6,599
28	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	6,363
29	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	6,239
30	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	5,781
31	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	5,432
32	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	5,051
33	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	4,999
34	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	4,972
35	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	4,893
36	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	4,850
37	Puerto Rico`PRI`Caribbean	4,729
38	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	4,721
39	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	4,704
40	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	4,646
41	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	4,626
42	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	4,557
43	Peru`PER`South America	4,479
44	Mexico`MEX`Central America	4,403
45	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	4,398
46	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	4,262
47	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	4,238
48	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	4,203
49	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	4,136
50	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	3,934
=51	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	3,848
=51	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	3,848
53	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	3,835
54	Colombia`COL`South America	3,826
55	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	3,714
56	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	3,666
57	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	3,642
58	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	3,537
59	Ecuador`ECU`South America	3,437
60	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	3,424
61	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	3,354
62	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	3,351
63	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	3,147
64	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	3,062
65	Panama`PAN`Central America	3,054
66	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	3,008
67	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	2,922
68	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	2,920
69	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	2,874
70	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	2,817
71	Brazil`BRA`South America	2,793
72	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	2,775
73	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	2,699
74	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	2,665
75	Bolivia`BOL`South America	2,573
76	Paraguay`PRY`South America	2,381
77	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	2,319
78	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	2,299
79	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	2,263
80	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	2,246
81	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	2,214
82	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	2,144
83	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	2,125
84	Honduras`HND`Central America	2,107
85	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	2,067
86	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	2,066
87	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	2,023
88	Palestine`PSE`Western Asia	2,000
89	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	1,997
90	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	1,986
91	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	1,978
92	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	1,914
93	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	1,908
94	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	1,852
95	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	1,847
96	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	1,752
97	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	1,741
98	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	1,613
99	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	1,522
100	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	1,516
101	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	1,492
102	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	1,479
103	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	1,474
104	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	1,473
105	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	1,467
106	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	1,451
107	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	1,414
108	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	1,325
109	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	1,323
110	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	1,302
111	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	1,256
112	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	1,253
113	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	1,245
114	Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	1,239
115	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	1,237
116	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	1,235
117	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	1,195
118	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	1,176
119	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	1,173
120	Niger`NER`Western Africa	1,122
121	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	1,116
122	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	1,097
123	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	1,093
124	India`IND`Southern Asia	1,084
125	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	1,036
126	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	1,012
127	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	969
=128	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	958
=128	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	958
130	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	947
131	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	945
132	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	915
133	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	905
134	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	845
135	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	835
=136	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	816
=136	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	816
138	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	813
139	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	751
140	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	749
141	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	744
142	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	720
143	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	701
144	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	682
145	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	665
146	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	622
147	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	615
148	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	610
149	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	544

02In 1957

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Kuwait50,126
2Qatar49,973
3United Arab Emirates32,329
4United States17,406
5Luxembourg14,961

Lowest

149Botswana544
148Malawi610
147Comoros615
146Guinea622
145Ethiopia665

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 2,573. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031956 → 1957

Since 1956

+0 / −0countries joined / left
149values changed, of 149 in both
120 · 29rose · fell
0unchanged

Rose most

Denmark11,858 → 12,696+838
Venezuela11,136 → 11,923+787
Serbia2,447 → 3,147+700
Croatia3,564 → 4,203+639
Luxembourg14,343 → 14,961+618

Fell most

Kuwait52,404 → 50,126−2,278
Qatar50,628 → 49,973−655
Singapore3,241 → 2,874−367
Iceland10,323 → 10,079−244
United Arab Emirates32,481 → 32,329−152

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 1957.
146 distinct values among 149
Values are stored exactly as published, to 13 decimals. 2 countries share 3,848. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 149 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
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-1957-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) (1957). Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1957 [data set], describing 1957. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/historical-gdp-per-capita/1957

06112 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1956
149 countries
The year after ›
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1958
149 countries
All of them
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison): every year
112 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

This edition

The same ranking, cut differently

Behind the number

Browse

By continent

Much-read profiles

Every subject

The numbers

Reading the data