March 22, 2026

Country Groups

Official country groupings used for GDP per capita comparisons, with sources and member lists.

IMF Groups

These groups are officially defined by the IMF World Economic Outlook.

G7

The Group of Seven major advanced economies, established in 1975.

Members (7): Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States

Compare G7 countries

G20

The Group of Twenty major economies, representing ~85% of global GDP.

Members (19 + EU): Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Compare G20 countries

European Union (27)

The 27 member states of the European Union.

Members (27): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden

Compare EU countries

Euro Area

The 20 countries that use the Euro as their currency.

Members (20): Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain

Compare Euro Area countries

ASEAN-5

The five major Southeast Asian economies within ASEAN.

Members (5): Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand

Compare ASEAN-5 countries

Advanced Economies

IMF classification of advanced economies based on per capita income, export diversification, and integration into the global financial system.

Members (38): Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States

Economic Alliances

BRICS

Economic alliance of major emerging economies. Originally coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill in 2001, it became a formal organization with annual summits.

Original members (5): Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa

Note: In 2024, BRICS expanded to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.

Compare BRICS countries

Source: infobrics.org

OECD

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, founded in 1961 to promote economic progress and world trade.

Members (38): Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States

Source: oecd.org

GCC

Gulf Cooperation Council, a political and economic alliance of Arab states in the Persian Gulf, founded in 1981.

Members (6): Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

Compare GCC countries

Source: gcc-sg.org

Income Groups

The World Bank classifies countries into four income groups based on GNI per capita (FY25 thresholds).

High Income

GNI per capita of $13,935 or more.

Examples: United States, Germany, Japan, France, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Singapore, UAE

Compare High Income countries

Upper Middle Income

GNI per capita of $4,516 to $13,935.

Examples: China, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Thailand, South Africa, Colombia, Malaysia, Argentina, Russia

Compare Upper Middle Income countries

Lower Middle Income

GNI per capita of $1,146 to $4,515.

Examples: India, Vietnam, Philippines, Egypt, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Morocco, Kenya, Ukraine, Indonesia

Compare Lower Middle Income countries

Low Income

GNI per capita of $1,145 or less.

Examples: Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Somalia, Syria

Compare Low Income countries

Source: World Bank Country and Lending Groups

Regional Groups

Nordic Countries

The five Nordic countries, cooperating through the Nordic Council since 1952.

Members (5): Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden

Compare Nordic countries

Source: Nordic Council

Latin America

Major economies in Latin America and the Caribbean, as classified by the IMF.

Major economies: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Middle East

Major economies in the Middle East region.

Major economies: Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Sub-Saharan Africa

Major economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, as classified by the IMF.

Major economies: Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Methodology

We calculate aggregate GDP per capita for each group using IMF World Economic Outlook data for both total GDP and population.

Formula

Group GDP per capita is computed as the sum of member GDPs divided by the sum of member populations:

GDP per capita (group) = Sum(GDP of members) / Sum(Population of members)

Important: This is not the same as averaging individual GDP per capita values. A simple average would give equal weight to Luxembourg and Germany, which would be misleading.

Handling missing data

Some countries have incomplete data for certain years (e.g., Syria, North Korea). Rather than excluding entire groups or showing broken timelines, we use a 90% population coverage threshold:

For each year, we calculate the aggregate only if countries representing at least 90% of the group's total population have data
This ensures small countries with missing data don't block the calculation
The aggregate remains representative since major economies are always included

For example, the LIC (low-income countries) group includes 27 countries. If Ethiopia (126M), DRC (102M), and Uganda (49M) have data, we can calculate a meaningful aggregate even if Eritrea (4M) is missing.

Data

All country groups with pre-calculated GDP per capita are available in our main dataset:

View on GitHub · Download JSON

Group codes

Codes are designed for clean URLs. We prefer short codes (LIC over LOW_INCOME) but explicit over ambiguous (ADVANCED over AE, which could be confused with UAE).

Code	Name
`WORLD`	World
`G7`	G7
`G20`	G20
`EU27`	European Union (27)
`EURO`	Euro Area
`OECD`	OECD
`ADVANCED`	Advanced economies
`ASEAN`	ASEAN-5
`BRICS`	BRICS
`GCC`	GCC
`NORDIC`	Nordic countries
`LATAM`	Latin America
`ME`	Middle East
`SSA`	Sub-Saharan Africa
`HIC`	High-income countries
`UMIC`	Upper-middle-income countries
`LMIC`	Lower-middle-income countries
`LIC`	Low-income countries

Preview JSON structure

{
  "countries": [...],
  "groups": [
    {
      "code": "G7",
      "name": "G7",
      "description": "USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada (G7)",
      "members": ["USA", "JPN", "DEU", "GBR", "FRA", "ITA", "CAN"],
      "data": {
        "1980": 12073.45,
        "2000": 31256.78,
        "2024": 62936.00,
        ...
      }
    },
    {
      "code": "LIC",
      "name": "Low-income countries",
      "description": "GNI per capita $1,145 or less (World Bank FY25)",
      "members": ["AFG", "BDI", "BFA", ...],
      "data": {
        "1980": 312.45,
        "2024": 829.00,
        ...
      }
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Sources

IMF World Economic Outlook - GDP per capita, total GDP, and population data
World Bank - Income group classifications
OECD Members - Official member list
Nordic Council - Nordic cooperation
BRICS Information Portal
GCC Secretariat General

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