After posting a graph of world population and GDP per capita for the last 2 thousand years, I went back and simplified the design based on the feedback I received.
{Click on the image to take a closer look}
The previous version used color to show a change in GDP per capita and included grid lines which I removed. Also in the new graph, I added the United States GDP per Capita for select years as a comparison.
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.
Technorati Tags: income distribution, population, GDP per Capita, economic history, income, history
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This makes it very easy to see how incomes have been soaring over the last 300 years or so, and shows as so much bunk all the gainsayers’ comments about the poor getting poorer.
Very interesting — thanks for the graph. How the GDP is distributed in the population would be interesting, eg, the median income.
Also I have a message to all people visiting this very URL:
Your really cool
To Daniel: This shows no evidence for disproving that the poor are getting poorer. Averages can always be driven up by extreme cases. Like Swartz asked for, you need median income, or quartiles to be able to judge distribution.
Very interesting graph. Look at the jump around 1800. And around 1500 when the New World was discovered.