Top 10 Countries by GDP per Capita (PPP), 2025
GDP per capita (PPP) is one of the cleanest ways to compare average material living standards across economies because it adjusts output for differences in local price levels. The Top 10 below uses 2025 estimates in international dollars (int$).
Important context for interpreting very high PPP-per-capita values
Extremely high GDP per capita (PPP) often appears in small, highly specialised economies. The mechanism is usually structural rather than “everyone earns the same huge salary”:
Financial and corporate hubs can generate very high value-added relative to a small resident population; cross-border commuters can inflate “GDP per resident” (output is produced locally, but some workers live abroad); resource exporters can jump to the top when resource rents are large per capita; and profit-location effects can lift measured GDP in jurisdictions hosting multinational structures.
This is why PPP GDP per capita is best read as “average output per person” — a powerful summary — but not a complete proxy for household take-home incomes, inequality, or day-to-day affordability.
Table 1. Top 10 economies by GDP per capita (PPP), 2025
| Rank | Economy | GDP per capita (PPP), int$ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore | 156,755.35 |
| 2 | Luxembourg | 152,915.41 |
| 3 | Macao SAR (China) | 134,041.95 |
| 4 | Ireland | 133,999.52 |
| 5 | Qatar | 121,605.13 |
| 6 | Norway | 107,891.95 |
| 7 | Switzerland | 97,581.32 |
| 8 | Brunei Darussalam | 95,758.15 |
| 9 | Guyana | 94,258.28 |
| 10 | United States | 89,105.20 |
Figure 1. Top 10 GDP per capita (PPP), 2025
- Singapore — 156,755.35 int$
- Luxembourg — 152,915.41 int$
- Macao SAR (China) — 134,041.95 int$
- Ireland — 133,999.52 int$
- Qatar — 121,605.13 int$
- Norway — 107,891.95 int$
- Switzerland — 97,581.32 int$
- Brunei Darussalam — 95,758.15 int$
- Guyana — 94,258.28 int$
- United States — 89,105.20 int$
Visual summary of the Top 10: the leaders are tightly clustered at the very top, combining financial hubs (Singapore, Luxembourg), specialised jurisdictions (Macao SAR), and commodity-linked high-income economies (Qatar, Norway, Brunei, Guyana).
Insights: what this Top 10 really tells you
1) “Richest per person” is not the same as “largest economy”
GDP per capita ranks average output per person, not total economic scale. That is why a small economy with a concentrated, high-value sector can outrank much larger countries. A large economy can be globally dominant in total GDP and still rank below small leaders on a per-person basis.
2) Why small economies dominate the frontier
At the top of the distribution, scale can work against the metric: large populations make it harder for a single sector to lift the national average dramatically. By contrast, places with small populations and specialised export sectors can generate high measured output per resident. Cross-border work patterns and corporate structuring can also raise measured GDP in the place of production or booking.
3) The “floor” of the Top 10 is still extremely high
Even the #10 economy in this snapshot is close to $90k per person (PPP). That places the entire Top 10 at the extreme upper tail of the global distribution — meaning the gap between the frontier and the world median remains large.
4) How to use this ranking as a reader
For living-standards comparisons, PPP per capita is typically more informative than nominal USD per capita because it accounts for price-level differences. For household well-being, add complementary checks: median incomes, inequality, labour-market participation, housing costs, and public-service quality. For resilience, focus on diversification and exposure to volatile sectors (energy, tourism, commodities).
Methodology
Indicator definition
GDP per capita (PPP) equals gross domestic product divided by population, adjusted by purchasing power parity (PPP), expressed in international dollars (int$) to make price levels comparable across economies.
Year and data choice
This page uses 2025 estimates for GDP per capita (PPP) as published in the referenced ranking dataset. PPP-based measures are benchmarked through international price comparisons and then extrapolated between benchmark years.
Processing rules
Economies are sorted in descending order by the published 2025 PPP-per-capita value. Values are displayed with thousands separators and kept to two decimals as published. Territories/jurisdictions may appear when the source dataset reports comparable PPP values.
Limitations
GDP is not income: it measures production, not household disposable income. Small-economy effects can inflate per-resident figures (commuters, multinationals, concentrated sectors). PPP revisions and benchmarking updates can reorder ranks over time. Commodity- and tourism-dependent economies tend to show higher volatility across cycles.
FAQ: GDP per capita (PPP) in plain language
What does “PPP” fix compared to nominal GDP per capita?
PPP adjusts for differences in local price levels. A dollar can buy more goods and services in some countries than others, so PPP converts output into a common “international dollar” basket to make average living-standard comparisons more meaningful than nominal exchange-rate conversions.
Why do small places and territories often top the ranking?
With small resident populations, a concentrated high-value sector (finance, energy, tourism, specialised services) can lift average output sharply. Cross-border workers can produce output locally without being counted as residents, and multinational structures can affect where GDP is recorded.
Does a higher GDP per capita (PPP) mean people are definitely richer?
It usually signals higher average production capacity, but “people are richer” depends on distribution and what households actually receive. Inequality, taxes/transfers, housing costs, and access to public services can make household well-being differ substantially from GDP-per-capita rankings.
How often are PPP numbers revised?
PPP levels are benchmarked through major international comparison rounds, then updated and extrapolated between benchmarks. When new benchmarks are integrated, historical PPP series can be revised, sometimes shifting rankings — especially for economies with fast-changing price structures.
Is GDP per capita (PPP) better than median income for living standards?
PPP GDP per capita is best for cross-country “average output” comparisons. Median income is often closer to what a typical household experiences, but it is less consistently comparable across countries. Ideally, use PPP GDP per capita to compare productivity and “economic capacity,” and median income (plus inequality and cost-of-living) to assess household well-being.
Sources (primary references)
For formal work, always consult original databases and methodological notes.
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Global Finance — “Richest Countries in the World 2025” (ranking list and 2025 estimates).
https://gfmag.com/data/richest-countries-in-the-world/ -
IMF — World Economic Outlook (WEO) DataMapper (PPPPC@WEO) (indicator definition and series access).
https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/PPPPC%40WEO -
World Bank — World Development Indicators (NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD) (cross-check reference series).
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD -
IMF — WEO databases documentation hub (updates, access notes).
https://www.imf.org/en/publications/sprolls/world-economic-outlook-databases
Download: tables & chart images (ZIP)
Asset pack for GDP per Capita (PPP), 2025: cleaned tables + exported chart images.
