GDP per capita in Latin America

The GDP or gross domestic product of a country is calculated by taking into account the monetary value of a nation's goods and services after a certain period of time, usually one year. It is a measure of economic activity.

This amount of wealth is then divided by the population of a given country to calculate its GDP per capita.

Essentially, GDP per capita acts as a metric to determine a country's economic output for each person living there. Often, wealthy nations with smaller populations tend to have higher GDP per capita.

The fact that GDP per capita divides a country's economic output by its total population makes it a good measure of a country's standard of living, especially since it tells us how prosperous a country feels to each of its citizens. .

Economies and GDP per capita

The GDP of the United States was $20 trillion in 2019. But one of the reasons the United States is so prosperous is because it has so many people. The United States is the third most populous country after China and India.

The United States had to spread its wealth among 328 million people in 2019. As a result, the US GDP per capita in 2019 was $65,240. That makes it one of the most prosperous countries per person. 

China, on the other hand, the world's most populous country, produced a GDP of $27 trillion (taking purchasing power parity into account) in 2019. But its GDP per capita was only $19,098 because it has more than four times the amount of people than the United States. It is the most populous country in the world, with 1.430 million people. 

The European Union, an economy made up of 27 separate member states, is the second most prosperous economy in the world, with $22 trillion in 2019. Its GDP per capita was only $43,206, as it must spread the wealth among 513.5 million people that year. 

In 2019, India's GDP was $11 trillion, but spread across its 1.38 billion people, its GDP per capita was just $7,971.

GDP per capita in Latin America – 2019

The Latin American region has a low average. This is characteristic of its nature as a “Developing Region”. In addition to this, in Latin America there is the impression that wealth is less than reality. This is due to the strong problems of corruption and inequality that have plagued it for decades.

For example, in Mexico the GDP per capita for 2019 was $9,863 USD, or what is the same, $821 USD per month. However, more than a third of the population in Mexico lives on less than $150 per month. This figure shows the strong situation of inequality that exists in one of the most robust economies of Latin America.