Two Thousand Years of Growth: World Income & Population

by Catherine on November 11, 2007

in Country Growth from 1500, VE Infographics

Ever wonder what the last 2 thousand years of economic growth looked like? The graph below was created using estimates of world population and GDP per capita going back 2 thousand years. (The circle size and color change as GDP per capita increases.)

{Click on the image to take a closer look}

Data estimates for population and GDP per capita are from Angus Maddison Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Economics, University of Groningen. 1990 international Geary-Khamis dollars are purchasing power parities (PPPs) used to evaluate output which are calculated based on international prices. See United Nations Statistics Division for more information their computation.

[tags]income distribution, population, GDP per Capita, economic history[/tags]

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Tagged as: Angus Maddison, Bubble Chart, GDP, GDP per Capita, Population, World

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Mike Liveright: Two comments:

1) Almost all organic things, things that grow… are better looked at on semi log plots. I suspect that there is still an increase in the growth rate in the recent years, but not as drastic as the linear chart makes it seem. Note: “The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
By Ray Kurzweil” –> http://books.google.com/books?id=88U6hdUi6D0C&dq=the+singularity+is+near&pg=PP1&ots=vZlZoGpvMO&sig=1kNQLHrpUzi3YniB8Upolgh3qIQ&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26rls%3DGGGL,GGGL:2006-46,GGGL:en%26sa%3DX%26oi%3Dspell%26resnum%3D0%26ct%3Dresult%26cd%3D1%26q%3Dthe%2Bsingularity%2Bis%2Bnear%26spell%3D1&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail
is a discussion of this, (Chapter 1 shows lots of these Log charts showing constant rate of growth entities) and how real soon now machines will be more intelegent that us people. — Of course there are other curves that sometimes fit situations better, but as a second, better cut, I’d suggest a Log plot of the world income

2) How to lie with statistics points out that the representation of a linear variable, e.g. Population, by a shape is usually consfusing. Is the variable represented by the size of the shape, thus the area is the square of the variable, or is it represented by the area, thus the size is the suare root of the variable. Thus representing the population by the circle is at least confusing to me.

Thanks, despite the comments.

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2 Living off dividends: so basically it was nearly constant for 1000 years when gold was the monetary system. since we’ve gotten off the gold standard, there’s been exponential monetary inflation!

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3 DavidYin: The cost of living is also increased.

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