As of January 2026, the United States holds the world's largest economy with a projected 2025 nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) exceeding $30.6 trillion. Global GDP is estimated to reach approximately $117.2 trillion in 2025. The US economy continues to be driven primarily by its service sector, holding over one-quarter of the global total.
Largest Economies of the World: The 10 largest economies in the world as of December 2025 are the USA, China, Germany, Japan, India, the UK, France, Italy, Russia, and Canada. Check out the complete list of the world's largest economies based on nominal GDP here.
By 2050, China is projected to be the world's largest economy by total GDP, followed by the United States and India, with major shifts as emerging markets like Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico rise significantly, though Singapore and Luxembourg may lead in GDP per capita (average wealth per person).
The U.S. GDP is so high due to a combination of a large, productive workforce, significant technological innovation (especially in high-value sectors like tech and finance), abundant natural resources, deep capital markets for investment, a large consumer base, favorable policies attracting talent and capital, and its role as the world's reserve currency, all supported by a stable political system and significant defense spending that spurs innovation.
GDP is reported quarterly as a year-over-year measurement of the economy's growth or decline. If GPD shows a year-over-year gain, the economy is growing because it is more productive. If the number declines, the economy is shrinking because it is less productive. Low GDP growth—under 3%-means the economy is sluggish.
The UK's economy is currently larger than France's in total GDP, but figures can fluctuate, with some reports suggesting France has slightly overtaken the UK in wealth per capita or by specific metrics, while the UK often shows higher GDP per person in other analyses, highlighting very similar economic standing with comparable GDP per capita and living standards, though France has greater overall household wealth and the UK higher financial asset wealth. Both are major European economies, often ranking closely in global lists for overall size and wealth per person, with recent data showing the UK's GDP slightly ahead (around $3.96 trillion vs France's $3.36 trillion for 2025 estimates) but differing perceptions based on various metrics like GDP per capita or wealth distribution.
Guyana has the fastest growing GDP in the world in 2025. While countries like India and South Sudan are showing a high growth rate, Guyana's oil production boom makes the country to be at the forefront of economic expansion. The main sectors contributing to India's GDP are agriculture, industry, and services.
What is the fastest shrinking economy in the world?
The world's fastest shrinking economy, South Sudan's output is expected to show a decline of 26.4% in 2024. The situation has become so desperate that the South Sudanese government has resorted to levying taxes on international aid trucks and UN peacekeepers, according to The Wall Street Journal.
South Sudan is the poorest country in the world in 2025, with a $251 GDP per capita. More startlingly, India makes the list as well. It's the 50th poorest by GDP per capita ($2,878), a rare case of a top-five economy by GDP having low levels of individual productivity.
No single group holds exactly 90% of the world's wealth, but extreme concentration exists, with the top 10% of the world's population owning the vast majority, around 75-85% of global wealth, leaving the bottom 90% with a small fraction, while the richest 1% owns a huge chunk of that, sometimes as much as the bottom 90% or more combined, according to reports from the World Inequality Database and Oxfam.
The majority of federal revenue comes from individual and corporate income taxes as well as social insurance taxes (such as the Social Security taxes described above).
The United States of America had an essential supply of natural resources such as timber, iron, coal, minerals, oil and land. Immigrants provided a plentiful and cheap work force to utilise these resources. This enabled America to become a huge economic power at the beginning of the 20th century.
The People's Republic of China has received the most consistent coverage in the popular press of its potential superpower status, and has been identified as a rising or emerging economic and military superpower by academics and other experts.
