👀 The 25 Richest Countries in the World (Depending on What's Measured) - Voronoi
Jul 28, 2025
👀 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 perresident, rather than just what is produced within the country’s borders.
UBS’smedian wealth per adult: Reflects the mediannet 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.
