Our World
in Data
Oxford Martin School logoUniversity of Oxford logoGlobal Change Data Lab logo

GDP per capitaIn constant international-$

Average economic output per person in a country or region per year. This data is adjusted for inflation and differences in living costs between countries.

Data source

World Bank

Unit
international-$ in 2021 prices
Last updated
2026-02-27
Next expected update
2027-02-27
Managed by
Pablo Rosado

  • GDP per capita is a comprehensive measure of people's average income. It helps compare income levels across countries and track how they change over time. It is especially useful for understanding trends in economic growth and living standards.

  • GDP per capita is calculated as the value of all final goods and services produced each year in a country (the ), divided by the population. It represents the average economic output per person.

  • This indicator shows the large inequality between people in different countries. In the poorest countries, average incomes are below $1,000 per year; in rich countries, they are more than 50 times higher.

Show moreShow less

  • This data is expressed in constant international dollars to adjust for inflation and differences in living costs between countries. Read more in our article, What are international dollars?

  • This data comes from the World Bank and starts in 1990. For estimates going back several centuries, explore our chart of GDP per capita from the Maddison Project Database.

Data sources

Eurostat, OECD, IMF, and World Bank – World Development Indicators

The World Development Indicators (WDI) database, published by the World Bank, is a comprehensive collection of global development data, providing key economic, social, and environmental statistics. It includes over 1,500 indicators covering more than 200 countries and territories, with data spanning several decades.WDI serves as a vital resource for policymakers, researchers, businesses, and analysts seeking to understand global trends and make data-driven decisions. The database covers a wide range of topics, including economic growth, education, health, poverty, trade, energy, infrastructure, governance, and environmental sustainability.The indicators are sourced from reputable national and international agencies, ensuring high-quality, consistent, and comparable data. Users can access the database through interactive online tools, API services, and downloadable datasets, facilitating detailed analysis and visualization.WDI is also used for tracking progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global development initiatives. By providing accessible and reliable statistics, it helps to inform policy discussions and strategies globally.Whether for academic research, policy planning, or economic analysis, the World Development Indicators database is an essential tool for understanding and addressing global development challenges.

Retrieved on
February 27, 2026
Retrieved from
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. 
International Comparison Program (ICP), World Bank (WB), uri: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp/data, note: This information is for ICP’s PPPs utilized in WDI, publisher: International Comparison Program (ICP), date accessed: May 30, 2024, date published: May 30, 2024;
The Eurostat PPP Programme, Eurostat (ESTAT), uri: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/explore/all/all_themes, publisher: Eurostat;
The OECD PPP Programme, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), uri: https://data-explorer.oecd.org/, publisher: OECD;
Staff estimates, World Bank (WB);
National Accounts data files, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD);
World Economic Outlook database, International Monetary Fund (IMF). Indicator NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD). World Development Indicators - World Bank (2026). Accessed on 2026-02-27.

Citations

How should I cite this data in a news article?

If you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Eurostat, OECD, IMF, and World Bank (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

How should I cite this in an academic article or report?

Eurostat, OECD, IMF, and World Bank (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “GDP per capita – World Bank – In constant international-$” [dataset]. Eurostat, OECD, IMF, and World Bank, “World Development Indicators 125” [original data]. Retrieved June 12, 2026 from https://datapage-v2.owid.pages.dev/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank

All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately. This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.

All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are international-$ and why are they used to measure incomes?

Much of the economic data we use to understand the world, such as the incomes people receive or the goods and services firms produce and people buy, is recorded in the local currencies of each country. That means the numbers start out in rupees, US dollars, yuan, and many others, and without adjusting for inflation over time. This is known as being in “current prices” or “nominal” terms.

Before these figures can be meaningfully compared, they need to be converted into common units. International dollars (int.-$) are a hypothetical currency that is used for this.

The idea is simple: one international dollar should buy the same quantity and quality of goods and services, no matter where or when it is spent. To achieve this, international dollars adjust for two things. First, they account for inflation within each country, so that values from different years can be compared (showing “constant” prices). Second, they account for differences in living costs across countries. This second adjustment uses purchasing power parity (PPP) rates, which reflect how much local currency is needed to buy what one US dollar would buy in the United States.

The United States is the benchmark, so that one 2021 int.-$ is defined as the value of goods and services that one US dollar would buy in the US in 2021. One 2011 int.-$ is defined in the same way, but for prices in 2011.

You can read more in our article, What are international dollars?

Related research and writing

What is economic growth? And why is it so important?

Max Roser

Related charts

Download

Quick download

Download the data shown in this chart as a ZIP file containing a CSV file, metadata in JSON format, and a README. The CSV file can be opened in Excel, Google Sheets, and other data analysis tools.

Download full data

Includes all entities and time points

Download displayed data

Includes only the entities and time points currently visible in the chart

Data API

Use these URLs to programmatically access this chart's data and configure your requests with the options below. Our documentation provides more information on how to use the API, and you can find a few code examples below.

Data URL (CSV format)
https://datapage-v2.owid.pages.dev/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false
Metadata URL (JSON format)
https://datapage-v2.owid.pages.dev/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false

Code examples

Examples of how to load this data into different data analysis tools.

Excel / Google Sheets
=IMPORTDATA("https://datapage-v2.owid.pages.dev/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Python with Pandas
import pandas as pd
import requests

# Fetch the data.
df = pd.read_csv("https://datapage-v2.owid.pages.dev/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", storage_options = {'User-Agent': 'Our World In Data data fetch/1.0'})

# Fetch the metadata
metadata = requests.get("https://datapage-v2.owid.pages.dev/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false").json()
R
library(jsonlite)

# Fetch the data
df <- read.csv("https://datapage-v2.owid.pages.dev/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")

# Fetch the metadata
metadata <- fromJSON("https://datapage-v2.owid.pages.dev/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank.metadata.json?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false")
Stata
import delimited "https://datapage-v2.owid.pages.dev/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank.csv?v=1&csvType=full&useColumnShortNames=false", encoding("utf-8") clear