History & Antiquity1 CE–2025
Share of World GDP
Two thousand years of the world economy as slices of a single pie, in PPP terms from the Maddison Project. For most of history India and China together made up more than half of global output; China peaked near a third of the world around 1820. Then Western Europe and the United States surged ahead in the industrial age — before China's dramatic return to the top in the 2010s.
1×
Source: Maddison Project Database Historical GDP (PPP) estimates; pre-modern figures are scholarly reconstructions with wide uncertainty. Updated 2026-07-03
The race in numbers
8lead changes
2,024years covered
10contenders
Indialongest reign — 1,499 yrs at #1
Final standings · 2025
- 1China19.0%
- 2United States15.0%
- 3Western Europe13.0%
- 4India8.0%
- 5Southeast Asia7.5%