Charts of the Day

Data source.

What a difference a century or two makes! In 1820, China (33%) and India (16%) together produced about half of world GDP, which was more than double the size of Europe (24%), while the U.S. economy was less than 2% of world GDP. To put that in perspective, the economy of Mexico in 1998 was 1.9% of world output and Spain was 1.7%, so the relative size of the U.S. economy in 1820 was comparable to Mexico or Spain today.

By 1950, the U.S. produced 27.3% of world output, and China and India together produced less than 9%. Today, China and India combined account for more than 20% of world GDP (adjusted for purcahsing power, according to IMF and World Bank data).