The 50 Wealthiest Countries
Though many people think that the wealthier a country is, the better off it is, this isn’t always the case. For example, in the United States, one of the richest countries in the world, many people battle depression, anxiety and an overall lack of happiness. However, for the most part, a higher per capita gross domestic product indicates a better standard of living and an arguably better life. In fact, many of the wealthiest countries have superior health and increased lifespans.
Using 2015 data from the World Bank, FindTheData, a research site powered by Graphiq, looked at all 193 countries in the United Nations to determine the 50 wealthiest countries, ranked by their per capita GDP.
Many of the countries on this list are unsurprising — the U.S., Australia and Switzerland all fall in the top 10. Of the top 50 richest countries, some are quite small. Qatar has approximately 2.2 million citizens and Monaco has around 38,000 citizens — most American cities have more people than that.
Of the hyper-wealthy small countries, many got rich for very unique reasons. Monaco did away with its income tax in 1896, which explains its draw for the world’s super wealthy. Qatar, on the other hand, sits atop one of the world's largest natural-gas and oil reserves — the discovery of this in 1940 helped bring the country to its current level of wealth.
However, not all of the countries on this list are tiny economic anomalies. Though the smallest country of the top 50 has only 32,000 citizens, the largest country has approximately 320 million people.
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