Trillion Dollar Club
This article includes a list of countries in the world sorted by their gross domestic product (GDP), the market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. The GDP dollar estimates presented here are calculated at market or government official exchange rates.
Several economies which are not considered to be countries (world, the EU, and some dependent territories) are included in the lists because they appear in the sources. These economies are not ranked in the charts here, but are listed where applicable.
The figures presented here do not take into account differences in the cost of living in different countries, and the results can vary greatly from one year to another based on fluctuations in the exchange rates of the country's currency. Such fluctuations may change a country's ranking from one year to the next, even though they often make little or no difference to the standard of living of its population. Therefore these figures should be used with caution.
Some countries/regions may have citizens which are on average wealthy. These countries/regions could appear in this list as having a small GDP. This would be because the country/region listed has a small population, and therefore small total economy; the GDP is calculated as the population times the wealth per capita.
Comparisons of national wealth are also frequently made on the basis of purchasing power parity (PPP), to adjust for differences in the cost of living in different countries. (See List of countries by GDP (PPP)) PPP largely removes the exchange rate problem, but has its own drawbacks; it does not reflect the value of economic output in international trade, and it also requires more estimation than nominal GDP. On the whole, PPP per capita figures are more narrowly spread than nominal GDP per capita figures.
The first list includes data compiled by the United Nations Statistics Division for 2011. The second list largely includes data (estimate) compiled by the International Monetary Fund for 2012.n1n5n6 The third list shows the World Bank's mostly 2011 estimates, and the fourth list includes mostly 2012 estimates from the CIA World Factbook.
Famous quotes containing the words trillion dollar, trillion, dollar and/or club:
“The last best hope of earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie “answers” questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“The last best hope of earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie “answers” questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)
“Your Dollar is your only Word,
The wrath of it your only fear.
“You build it altars tall enough
To make you see, but your are blind;
You cannot leave it long enough
To look before you or behind.”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
“Please accept my resignation. I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.”
—Groucho Marx (1895–1977)