Data for 1988

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1988

Name: Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1988
Creator: Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC)
License: https://doi.org/10.34894/INZBF2

1988, 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), 1988 covers 165 countries. United States is highest, at 35,863; Chad is lowest, at 692. The middle country reads 6,089. Against 1987, 165 values changed (106 up, 59 down), the same countries are covered.

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Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison) · Data for 1988

HighestUnited States

35,863

LowestChad

692

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

165countries
1measure
1988the year it describes
162distinct values12 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), 1988, 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 165 countries · select a heading to sort

Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1988: every country, as published by Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC).
derived
1	United States`USA`Northern America	35,863
2	Luxembourg`LUX`Western Europe	33,351
3	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	32,483
4	Canada`CAN`Northern America	30,275
5	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	29,049
6	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	28,934
7	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	28,786
8	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	27,468
9	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	27,393
10	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	27,063
11	France`FRA`Western Europe	26,763
12	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	26,702
13	Belgium`BEL`Western Europe	25,905
14	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	25,759
15	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	25,679
16	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	25,644
17	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	25,574
18	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	25,112
19	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	24,743
20	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	22,022
21	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	20,256
22	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	20,215
23	Slovenia`SVN`Southern Europe	20,083
24	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	19,853
25	Estonia`EST`Northern Europe	17,661
26	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	17,276
27	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	16,313
28	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	15,729
29	Puerto Rico`PRI`Caribbean	15,701
30	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	15,596
31	Latvia`LVA`Northern Europe	14,875
32	Lithuania`LTU`Northern Europe	14,851
33	Georgia`GEO`Western Asia	14,665
34	Venezuela`VEN`South America	14,308
35	Croatia`HRV`Southern Europe	14,207
36	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	14,198
37	Taiwan`TWN`Eastern Asia	14,183
38	Czechia`CZE`Eastern Europe	13,791
39	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	13,748
40	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	13,087
41	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	12,795
42	Russia`RUS`Eastern Europe	12,720
43	Slovakia`SVK`Eastern Europe	12,659
44	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	12,492
45	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	12,317
46	Kazakhstan`KAZ`Central Asia	12,256
47	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	12,040
48	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	11,765
49	Argentina`ARG`South America	11,244
50	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	11,207
51	Belarus`BLR`Eastern Europe	11,198
52	Serbia`SRB`Southern Europe	10,793
53	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	10,633
54	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	10,418
55	Uruguay`URY`South America	10,256
56	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	10,098
57	North Macedonia`MKD`Southern Europe	10,034
58	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	9,913
59	Moldova`MDA`Eastern Europe	9,731
60	Ukraine`UKR`Eastern Europe	9,704
61	Azerbaijan`AZE`Western Asia	9,328
62	Armenia`ARM`Western Asia	9,301
63	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	9,228
64	Chile`CHL`South America	9,199
65	Mexico`MEX`Central America	9,193
66	Brazil`BRA`South America	8,230
67	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	8,019
68	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	7,571
69	Colombia`COL`South America	7,442
70	Montenegro`MNE`Southern Europe	7,299
71	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	7,270
72	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	7,144
73	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	7,114
74	Uzbekistan`UZB`Central Asia	7,101
75	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	6,982
76	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	6,802
77	Panama`PAN`Central America	6,743
78	Bosnia and Herzegovina`BIH`Southern Europe	6,668
79	Turkmenistan`TKM`Central Asia	6,601
80	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	6,512
81	Ecuador`ECU`South America	6,357
82	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	6,319
83	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	6,089
84	Peru`PER`South America	6,003
85	Kyrgyzstan`KGZ`Central Asia	5,679
86	Tajikistan`TJK`Central Asia	5,515
87	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	5,397
88	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	5,386
89	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	5,249
90	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	5,086
91	Paraguay`PRY`South America	5,082
92	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	4,994
93	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	4,940
94	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	4,850
95	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	4,779
96	Palestine`PSE`Western Asia	4,745
97	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	4,670
98	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	4,635
99	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	4,385
100	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	4,077
101	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	4,001
=102	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	3,920
=102	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	3,920
104	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	3,908
105	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	3,821
106	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	3,747
107	Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	3,687
108	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	3,633
109	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	3,500
110	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	3,492
111	Bolivia`BOL`South America	3,386
112	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	3,355
113	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	3,344
114	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	3,070
115	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	3,045
116	Honduras`HND`Central America	3,009
117	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	2,652
118	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	2,577
119	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	2,498
120	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	2,444
121	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	2,442
122	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	2,295
123	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	2,287
124	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	2,227
125	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	2,114
126	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	2,085
127	India`IND`Southern Asia	1,938
128	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	1,898
129	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	1,780
130	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	1,741
131	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	1,736
=132	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	1,701
=132	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	1,701
134	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	1,667
135	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	1,648
136	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	1,626
137	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	1,556
138	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	1,538
139	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	1,533
140	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	1,473
141	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	1,417
142	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	1,403
143	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	1,360
144	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	1,286
145	Sudan`SDN`Northern Africa	1,282
146	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	1,269
147	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	1,240
=148	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	1,239
=148	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	1,239
150	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	1,235
151	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	1,207
152	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	1,152
153	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	1,119
154	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	1,116
155	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	1,101
156	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	1,073
157	Ethiopia`ETH`Eastern Africa	969
158	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	964
159	Niger`NER`Western Africa	939
160	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	902
161	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	894
162	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	872
163	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	867
164	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	856
165	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	692

02In 1988

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1United States35,863
2Luxembourg33,351
3Switzerland32,483
4Canada30,275
5Denmark29,049

Lowest

165Chad692
164Guinea856
163Tanzania867
162Malawi872
161DR Congo894

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 6,089. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031987 → 1988

Since 1987

+0 / −0countries joined / left
165values changed, of 165 in both
106 · 59rose · fell
0unchanged

Rose most

Luxembourg30,533 → 33,351+2,818
Hong Kong25,414 → 27,063+1,649
Singapore18,345 → 19,853+1,508
Japan25,904 → 27,393+1,489
South Korea10,865 → 12,040+1,175

Fell most

Lebanon6,202 → 4,385−1,817
Iraq6,052 → 4,635−1,417
United Arab Emirates21,487 → 20,215−1,272
Panama7,653 → 6,743−910
Slovenia20,851 → 20,083−768

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 1988.
162 distinct values among 165
Values are stored exactly as published, to 12 decimals. 2 countries share 3,920. Countries sharing a value share a position too.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 165 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
165 rows · 4.5 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download historical-gdp-per-capita-1988-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) (1988). Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1988 [data set], describing 1988. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/historical-gdp-per-capita/1988

06112 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1987
165 countries
The year after ›
Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison), 1989
165 countries
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Historical GDP per Capita (Maddison): every year
112 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
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