In 2000 total economic activity around the world was$42.29 trillion international dollars. Ten years later, in 2010, the total amount of officially recognized economic activity on earth was $74.60 trillion international dollars. Where did the $32.31 trillion increase in gross domestic product (GDP) originate from?

In the table below, all countries that contributed at least 0.5% to the increase in total global economic activity between 2000 and 2010 are listed. These 33 nations are both geographically and economically diverse. While some countries were already quite large in 2000 (the U.S., Japan, China, Germany, etc) others were much smaller (Nigeria, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, etc).

From 2000 to 2010, 22.0% of the increase in global economic activity came from China. The nation’s GDP increased from $3,015 billion in 2000 to $10,128 billion international dollars in 2010, a rise of 236%.

The second largest contributor to global economic growth was the United States. From 2000 to 2010, United States GDP increased from $9,951 billion to $14,527 billion, a rise of 46%. This increase accounted for 14.2% of global economic growth from 2000 to 2010.

Apart from China, other nations that at least doubled in size between 2000 and 2010 and added at least 0.5% to global economic activity include Nigeria (181%), India (159%), Vietnam (151%), Singapore (120%), the Islamic Republic of Iran (117%), Indonesia (106%), Egypt (102%) and Russia (100%).

The slowest growers over this ten year time period were Italy (28%), Japan (35%), Germany (37%), France (39%) and the Netherlands (44%).  Each of these  nations fell on the list of largest nations during the first decade of the 21st century.