Data for 1972

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1972

Name: Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1972
Creator: Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC)
License: https://doi.org/10.34894/INZBF2

1972, 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), 1972 covers 150 countries. Qatar is highest, at 62,416; Chad is lowest, at 800. The middle country reads 4,421. Against 1971, 149 values changed (116 up, 33 down), the same countries are covered.

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Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison) · Data for 1972

HighestQatar

62,416

LowestChad

800

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

150countries
1measure
1972the 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), 1972, 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 150 countries · select a heading to sort

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1972: every country, as published by Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC).
derived
1	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	62,416
2	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	48,283
3	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	39,540
4	United States`USA`Northern America	25,414
5	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	25,357
6	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	22,236
7	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	21,579
8	Canada`CAN`Northern America	20,837
9	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	20,725
10	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	20,079
11	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	19,772
12	France`FRA`Western Europe	19,549
13	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	18,889
14	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	18,336
15	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	18,301
16	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	18,002
17	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	17,409
18	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	17,366
19	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	17,169
20	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	17,110
21	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	16,654
22	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	16,035
23	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	15,138
24	Venezuela`VEN`South America	15,135
25	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	15,108
26	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	14,269
27	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	13,753
28	Argentina`ARG`South America	12,170
29	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	11,795
30	Puerto Rico`PRI`Caribbean	11,046
31	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	10,788
32	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	10,632
33	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	10,621
34	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	10,567
35	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	10,130
36	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	9,785
37	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	9,631
38	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	9,626
39	Chile`CHL`South America	8,520
40	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	8,505
41	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	8,247
42	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	8,228
43	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	8,155
44	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	8,145
45	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	7,986
46	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	7,809
47	Uruguay`URY`South America	7,643
48	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	7,347
49	Mexico`MEX`Central America	7,256
50	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	7,243
51	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	7,127
52	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	6,692
53	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	6,564
54	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	6,559
55	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	6,550
56	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	6,271
57	Peru`PER`South America	6,264
58	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	6,237
59	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	6,156
60	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	6,150
61	Panama`PAN`Central America	5,571
62	Brazil`BRA`South America	5,480
63	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	5,413
64	Colombia`COL`South America	5,348
65	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	5,297
66	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	5,206
67	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	5,128
68	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	5,037
69	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	4,962
70	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	4,929
71	Ecuador`ECU`South America	4,801
72	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	4,787
73	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	4,661
74	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	4,568
75	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	4,543
76	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	4,299
77	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	4,149
78	Palestine`PSE`Western Asia	3,797
79	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	3,754
80	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	3,746
81	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	3,668
82	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	3,649
83	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	3,645
84	Bolivia`BOL`South America	3,602
85	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	3,451
86	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	3,388
87	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	3,253
88	Paraguay`PRY`South America	3,017
89	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	2,954
90	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	2,928
91	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	2,906
92	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	2,887
93	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	2,786
94	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	2,729
95	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	2,660
96	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	2,582
97	Honduras`HND`Central America	2,448
98	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	2,383
99	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	2,327
100	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	2,324
101	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	2,289
102	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	2,279
103	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	2,268
104	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	2,235
105	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	2,117
106	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	2,047
107	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	2,007
108	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	1,916
109	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	1,908
110	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	1,889
111	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	1,761
112	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	1,709
113	Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	1,674
114	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	1,640
115	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	1,635
116	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	1,612
117	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	1,525
118	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	1,524
119	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	1,511
120	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	1,457
121	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	1,455
122	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	1,431
123	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	1,412
124	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	1,400
125	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	1,368
126	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	1,364
127	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	1,361
128	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	1,334
129	India`IND`Southern Asia	1,329
=130	Niger`NER`Western Africa	1,282
=130	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	1,282
132	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	1,278
133	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	1,256
134	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	1,253
135	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	1,235
136	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	1,108
137	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	1,034
138	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	1,023
139	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	1,007
140	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	995
141	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	971
142	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	966
143	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	945
144	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	920
145	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	886
146	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	866
147	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	851
148	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	826
149	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	807
150	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	800

02In 1972

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Qatar62,416
2Kuwait48,283
3United Arab Emirates39,540
4United States25,414
5Switzerland25,357

Lowest

150Chad800
149Bangladesh807
148Guinea826
147Malawi851
146Burundi866

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 4,421. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031971 → 1972

Since 1971

+0 / −0countries joined / left
149values changed, of 150 in both
116 · 33rose · fell
1unchanged

Rose most

Qatar59,731 → 62,416+2,685
Saudi Arabia13,509 → 15,138+1,629
Syria5,992 → 7,243+1,251
Greece10,559 → 11,795+1,236
Israel13,885 → 15,108+1,223

Fell most

Kuwait49,302 → 48,283−1,019
Iraq5,686 → 5,297−389
Uruguay7,933 → 7,643−290
Chile8,773 → 8,520−253
Afghanistan1,237 → 1,007−230

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 1972.
149 distinct values among 150
Values are stored exactly as published, to 13 decimals. 2 countries share 1,282. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 150 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

.csv
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150 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-1972-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) (1972). Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1972 [data set], describing 1972. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/historical-gdp-per-capita/1972

06112 held

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Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1971
150 countries
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