These are lists of regions and countries by their estimated real gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), the value of all final goods and services produced within a country/region in a given year. GDP dollar (international dollar) estimates here are derived from PPP estimates. These datasets are widely used in economic history and have also been used in various secondary analyses based on Maddison's estimates.Maddison, Angus (2007). Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD.Bolt, Jutta; van Zanden, Jan Luiten (2020). Maddison Project Database.

Methodology In the absence of sufficient data for nearly all economies until well into the 19th century, past GDP cannot be calculated, but at best only roughly estimated. In a first step, economic historians try to reconstruct the GDP per capita for a given political or geographical entity from the meagre evidence. This value is then multiplied by estimated population size, another determinant for which as a rule only little ancient data is available.

A key notion in the whole process is that of subsistence, the income level which is necessary for sustaining one's life. Since pre-modern societies, by modern standards, were characterized by a very low degree of urbanization and a large majority of people working in the agricultural sector, economic historians prefer to express income in cereal units. To achieve comparability over space and time, these numbers are then converted into monetary units such as International Dollars, a third step which leaves a relatively wide margin of interpretation.

The formula thus is: GDP (PPP) = GDP per capita (PPP) x population size

It should be stressed that, historically speaking, population size is the far more important multiplier in the equation. This is because, in contrast to industrial economies, the average income ceiling of premodern agrarian societies was quite low everywhere, possibly not higher than twice the subsistence level.Milanovic 2006, p. 460, 468: Therefore, the total GDP as given below primarily reflects the respective historical population size, and is much less indicative of contemporary living standards than, for example, estimations of past GDP per capita are.

According to the 20th-century macroeconomist Paul Bairoch, a pioneer in historical economic analysis,

Rather, Bairoch advocates a formula combining GNP per capita and total GNP to give a better measure of the economic performance of national economies.Bairoch 1976, p. 282

World

1750–1990 (Bairoch) In his 1995 book Economics and World History, economic historian Paul Bairoch gave the following estimates in terms of 1960 US dollars, for GNP from 1750 to 1990, comparing what are today the Third World (Asia, Africa, Latin America) and the First World (Western Europe, Northern America, Japan)

+ GNP (PPP) in billions of US dollars Year 1960 dollars 1990 dollars Third World First World Third World First World 1750 112 35 1800 137 47 1830 150 67 1860 159 118 1900 184 297 1913 217 430 1928 252 568 1938 293 678 1950 338 889 1970 810 2,450 1980 1,280 3,400 1990 1,730 4,350

A Third World refers to Asia (excluding Japan), Africa, and Latin America.

B First World refers to Europe, Russia, the United States, Canada, and Japan.

1–2008 (Maddison) The following estimates are taken exclusively from the 2007 monograph Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD by the British economist Angus Maddison.Maddison 2007, p. 379, table A.4. When graphed, one can see that South Asia was the world's largest economy from year 1 to year 1500, when it lost the position to China. South Asia again regained the pole position in the year 1700 before losing it to China in year 1820. China subsequently lost to the industrialising Western Europe, in the middle of the 19th century. Cumulatively from the data, South Asia maintained the world's largest economy for a large majority of the past two millennia over 1500 years (1-1500, 1700), and China has maintained it for roughly 300 years in the past two millennia (1500-1700, 1820-1890).

+ GDP (PPP) in millions of 1990 International Dollars Country / Region 1 1000 1500 1600 1700 1820 1870 1913 1950 1973 1989 2008 Austria 213 298 1,414 2,093 2,483 4,104 8,419 23,451 25,702 85,227 124,791 198,004 Belgium 135 170 1,225 1,561 2,288 4,529 13,716 32,347 47,190 118,516 166,396 246,103 Denmark 72 144 443 569 727 1,471 3,782 11,670 29,654 70,032 93,728 135,037 Finland 8 16 136 215 255 913 1,999 6,389 17,051 51,724 84,092 127,676 France 2,366 2,763 10,912 15,559 19,539 35,468 72,100 144,489 220,492 683,965 1,000,286 1,423,562 Germany 1,225 1,435 8,256 12,656 13,650 26,819 72,149 237,332 265,354 944,755 1,302,212 1,713,405 Italy 6,475 2,250 11,550 14,410 14,630 22,535 41,814 95,487 164,957 582,713 906,053 1,157,636 Netherlands 85 128 723 2,072 4,047 4,288 9,952 24,955 60,642 175,791 247,906 411,055 Norway 40 80 183 266 361 777 2,360 5,988 17,728 44,852 76,733 132,365 Sweden 80 160 382 626 1,231 3,098 6,927 17,403 47,269 109,794 149,415 193,352 Switzerland 128 123 411 750 1,068 2,165 5,581 16,483 42,545 117,251 141,599 190,328 UK 320 800 2,815 6,007 10,709 36,232 100,180 224,618 347,850 675,941 940,908 1,446,959 12 country total 11,146 8,366 38,450 56,784 70,988 142,399 338,979 840,612 1,286,434 3,660,561 5,235,115 7,402,911 Portugal 180 255 606 814 1,638 3,043 4,219 7,467 17,615 63,397 102,922 154,132 Spain 1,867 1,800 4,495 7,029 7,481 12,299 19,556 41,653 61,429 266,896 454,166 797,927 Other 1,240 504 632 975 1,106 2,110 4,712 12,478 30,600 105,910 169,648 343,059 Total Western Europe 14,433 10,925 44,183 65,602 81,213 159,851 367,466 902,210 1,396,078 4,096,764 5,961,851 8,698,029 Eastern Europe 1,956 2,600 6,696 9,289 11,393 24,906 50,163 134,793 185,023 550,756 718,039 1,030,628 Former USSR 1,560 2,840 8,458 11,426 16,196 37,678 83,646 232,351 510,243 1,513,070 2,037,253 2,242,206 United States 272 520 800 600 527 12,548 98,374 517,383 1,455,916 3,536,622 5,703,521 9,485,136 Other Western offshoots 176 228 320 320 306 951 13,119 65,558 179,574 521,667 856,847 1,448,542 Total Western offshoots 448 748 1,120 920 833 13,499 111,493 582,941 1,635,490 4,058,289 6,560,368 10,933,678 Mexico 880 1,800 3,188 1,134 2,558 5,000 6,214 25,921 67,368 279,302 491,767 877,312 Other Latin America 1,360 2,760 4,100 2,629 3,788 9,921 21,097 94,875 347,960 1,110,158 1,735,919 3,168,621 Total Latin America 2,240 4,560 7,288 3,763 6,346 14,921 27,311 120,796 415,328 1,389,460 2,227,686 4,045,933 Japan 1,200 3,188 7,700 9,620 15,390 20,739 25,393 71,653 160,966 1,242,932 2,208,858 2,904,141 China 26,820 26,550 61,800 96,000 82,800 228,600 189,740 241,431 244,985 739,414 2,051,813 8,908,894 India (Subcontinent) 33,750 33,750 60,500 74,250 90,750 111,417 134,882 204,242 222,222 494,8321,043,9123,415,183 Other east Asia 4,845 8,968 20,822 24,582 28,440 36,451 53,155 122,874 256,938 829,023 2,021,528 5,154,979 West Asia 10,120 12,415 10,495 12,637 12,291 15,270 22,468 40,588 106,283 548,120 855,130 1,905,346 Total Asia (excl. Japan) 75,535 81,683 153,617 207,469 214,281 391,738 400,245 609,135 830,428 2,621,624 5,972,383 19,384,402 Africa 8,030 13,835 19,383 23,473 25,776 31,266 45,234 79,486 203,131 549,993 889,922 1,734,918 World 105,402 120,379 248,445 331,562 371,428 694,598 1,110,951 2,733,365 5,331,689 16,022,888 26,576,359 50,973,935 Country / Region 1 1000 1500 1600 1700 1820 1870 1913 1950 1973 1989 2008

A From 1 AD to 1913 AD, Indian Subcontinent includes modern Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. From 1950 onwards, India refers only to the modern Republic of India.

Maddison' assumptions have been both admired and criticized by academics and journalists. By Bryan Haig, who has characterized Maddison's figures for 19th century Australia as "inaccurate and irrelevant",Haig, Bryan. 2005. "Review of The World Economy: Historical Statistics by Angus Maddison," Economic Reports, volume 81. by W. W. Rostow, according to whom "this excessive macroeconomic bias also causes him (Maddison) to mis-date, in my view, the beginning of what he calls the capitalist era at 1820 rather than, say, the mid-1780s."Rostow, W. W. "Reviewed Work(s): Phases of Capitalist Development. by Angus Maddison," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 45, No. 4. (Dec., 1985), pp. 1026-1028.

W. J. MacPherson has described Maddison's work on early medieval India of using "dubious comparative data."MacPherson, W. J. "Reviewed Work(s): Class Structure and Economic Growth. India and Pakistan since the Moghuls by Angus Maddison." The Economic Journal, Vol. 82, No. 328. (Dec., 1972), pp. 1470-1472. Maddison's estimates have also been critically reviewed and revised by the Italian economists Giovanni FedericoFederico 2002, pp. 111–120 and Elio Lo Cascio/Paolo Malanima (see below).Lo Cascio, Malanima Dec. 2009, pp. 391–420

However, economist and journalist Evan Davis has praised Maddison's research by citing it as a "fantastic publication" and that it was "based on the detailed scholarship of the world expert on historical economic data Angus Maddison." He also added that "One shouldn't read the book in the belief the statistics are accurate to 12 decimal places."

Europe

1830–1938 (Bairoch) The following estimates were made by the economic historian Paul Bairoch.Bairoch 1976, pp. 281, table 4; 295, table 10 Contrary to most other estimates on this page, the GNP (at market prices) is given here in 1960 US dollars. Unlike Maddison, Bairoch allows for the fluctuation of borders, basing his estimates mostly on the historical boundaries at the given points in time.The border between "Western Europe" and "Eastern Europe" as defined by Bairoch corresponds to the Iron Curtain, with "Eastern Europe" being identical to the Eastern Bloc (Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and the USSR plus Albania). All the rest of Europe makes up "Western Europe" (Bairoch 1976, pp. 317, 319).