👀 The 25 Richest Countries in the World (Depending on What's Measured)

Key Takeaways

• Luxembourg’s immense output per person ($141K GDP per capita) masks much of its non-resident workers.
• Qatar’s oil windfall lifts GDP per capita ($72K) but that hasn’t spread into broader wealth, unlike Australia or Belgium.
• English-speaking countries translate middling GDP per capita into high median wealth through property ownership and strong pension systems.
• Generating national wealth and distributing it to households are distinctly different economic challenges.

What Each Metric Shows:

• GDP Per Capita: Reflects total economic activity in a country in a single year, divided by the population. 
• GNI Per capita: Reflects how much income earned per resident, rather than just what is produced within the country’s borders.
• UBS’s median wealth per adult: Reflects the median net worth of adults in the country (all assets and investments minus their debts) built over time instead of in a single year.
• As UBS puts it: median wealth is simply the level at which half the population is better off and the other half is worse off.
• It is possible that no one in a country actually possesses the listed median wealth figure.