Where in the World is Wealth Being Created?

The world has changed a lot over the past 20 years.  What does that change look like from the perspective of wealth creation? Before looking at the animated GIFs below, which show estimates of wealth creation by individuals and businesses living within each nation, take a minute and guess.

No doubt, individuals and businesses living within the boundaries of the United States are the wealthiest (at least in terms of absolute wealth).  Who would you guess is second?  Perhaps the success of the German people?  Or perhaps the French or English?  Have the Chinese caught up, or perhaps the Indians?

Here are the data, in animated GIF format.  In addition, you can view the data interactively with this link to the Tableau Public visualization.  The Tableau Public visualization contains more countries and various methods to slice the data.

Overall, the wealth of the United States continues to dominate, with an estimated 2011 wealth of individuals and businesses of about $129 trillion.  Another interesting data point is the rise of the Chinese – certainly something worth discussing. In 1990, the Chinese were far from remarkable, with an estimated $3 trillion in wealth. By 2011, the industrious individuals and businesses living in China had increased their wealth 21 fold, to an estimated $63 trillion, or about $13 trillion more than the third place Japanese.

The data also confirm well known assumptions, such as the slow, but continual wealth accumulation of many European countries, and the strengthening of some of the South American countries, including Brazil (estimated $21 trillion), and Mexico (estimated $10 trillion).  Another interesting observation is the lack of an African country among the world’s wealthiest.  Further down the list is South Africa at about $3.5 trillion or about the same amount of wealth in 2011 as the Chinese held in 1990.

With these historical wealth estimates as the background, what would you guess the next 20 years will look like?  Will the Chinese people catch up with the wealth of the Americans?  Perhaps the Germans or French or English will experience a rebirth of productivity.  Will individuals and businesses headquartered in Africa experience a Chinese-style wealth creation episode?

Overall, individuals and businesses headquartered in the United States continue to hold the lion’s share of the world’s wealth, although the amount of wealth advantage individuals have over individuals living in other countries has been shrinking.  The question now is whether the Chinese, French, Germans, or others will catch up with the Americans in terms of wealth creation, be it in terms of wealth creation per employee or wealth creation in total or some other reasonable measure of real wealth.