What is the Difference Between GDP and GDP per Capita?

Measuring a country's economic state is crucial, but it can be difficult to do. 

GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product and measures the value of an economy.

However, there are plenty of criticisms about using this method because it doesn't take into account other factors that affect growth or decline in the economy such as social welfare programs like unemployment benefits since they aren't included in calculations with money spent on them left out completely when considering how much should be used towards government spending per capita without including taxes collected from citizens which also isn't taken into consideration. 

Leaving many not being able to give accurate numbers based on figures provided by GDP even though people have worked hard trying their best at collecting reliable data so far. 

What is GDP?

GDP is one of the most commonly used measures to determine how well a country's economy fares. It takes into account all goods produced and services made available (both tangible like cars, homes, etc., as well as intangible like financial transactions) within a specific period of time. GDP can be obtained quarterly or annually but it isn't without its flaws.

For example: -

somebodies have already proposed alternate formulas that provide better insights on economic health than just using GDP numbers alone.

What is GDP per Capita?

GDP per capita is a measure that results from GDP divided by the size of the nation's overall population. So in essence, it is theoretically the amount of money each individual gets in that particular country. The GDP per capita provides a much better determination of living standards as compared to just using GDP alone.

When the population increases, naturally so do GDP. An increase in GDP may not always result in a high standard of living as there are other factors that should be taken into consideration such as cost of living and inflation rates.

"A country with a high GDP but an overwhelmingly large population will result in low average income, indicating that the standard of living is not so great. On the other hand, if there are few people and lots of wealth to go around per capita then it means citizens have better lives."

To be honest, GDP per capita is a more reliable measure for determining the economic state of a nation. India has an impressive GDP but its standard of living isn't so high due to population size being extremely large. However, Luxembourg's not-so-impressive GDP ranks one of the highest with a small population because it allows them better lives there overall since their economy can support many people in that country too.

I have explained GDP, GDP per Capita, the relationship between economy and stock market in "A Complete Course On Indian Stock Market" (More than 1 Lac+ People have joined in the last 18 months.)

See you in class :)

Kundan Kishore

Curator of "A Complete Course On Indian Stock Market"