At its peak the USSR was about 50% of the GDP of the USA. At the end of 2012, China, Hong Kong and Macau GDP will be about $8.3 trillion. The USA will have about $15.6 trillion. China will be about 53.2% of the US economy. China’s nominal GDP compared to the USA is passing the peak level of the Soviet Union nominal GDP estimate compared to the USA.
Macau had 20.7% GDP growth in 2011, and is projected to have 18% in 2012 and 14.4% in 2013 Macau had GDP of $36.1 billion at the end of 2011. At the end of 2012 it would have 43 billion in GDP and 50 billion at the end of 2013.
China has 3 times as much GDP now than the combined countries that make up the old Soviet Union (if they were still unified.)
On a purchasing power parity basis China has 3.5 to 7 times the PPP GDP of the soviet union. China has 4.75 times as much population.
The Atlantic looked at historical World GDP shares for the last 2000 years.
The Daily Beast looked at China’s economy compared to the Soviet Union.
Japan had a peak nominal GDP in 1995 (with a very strong yen) of 71% of the US economy.
GDP estimates from wikipedia This GDP table is in billions.
Country | GDP (2012 nominal) | GDP (2013 nominal) | PPP 2012 | Population |
Russia | 2,022 | 2,311 | 2,511 | 143.1 |
Kazakhstan | 199 | 220 | 232 | 16.7 |
Ukraine | 183 | 199 | 344 | 45.6 |
Azerbaijan | 72 | 82 | 101 | 9.1 |
Belarus | 58 | 62 | 148 | 9.5 |
Georgia | 16 | 17.3 | 25.4 | 4.5 |
Uzbekistan | 52 | 58 | 102 | 29.1 |
Armenia | 10.5 | 11 | 19 | 3.3 |
Lithuania | 42 | 45 | 64 | 3.2 |
Latvia | 27 | 29 | 36 | 2.1 |
Estonia | 22 | 24 | 28 | 1.3 |
Kyrgyzstan | 6.4 | 7.0 | 14 | 5.3 |
Tajikistan | 7.2 | 7.7 | 17 | 7.8 |
Moldova | 7.6 | 8.1 | 12.7 | 3.6 |
Totals | 2725 | 3081 | 3654 | 284.2 |
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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