According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the total market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced around the world in 2011 was nearly $78.9 trillion international dollars. That is equivalent to about $69.6 trillion U.S. dollars. Of this total, 19.1% of worldwide final goods and services were produced in the United States.

Although the total share of goods and services produced, known as gross domestic product (GDP), in the U.S. was nearly 1/5 of the total global output, the contribution was less than it has been in the past. Despite the fact that the U.S. economy grew by an inflation adjusted 1.7% in 2011, the global economy grew at a quicker pace, 2.8%.

The top 15 contributors to global GDP in 2011 are included in the chart below. Collectively these 15 nations produced 71.7% of global GDP in 2011. The size of each country dot is sized to represent the percentage of global GDP each country was responsible for producing in a given year. For example, placing second to the U.S. in 2011 was China which produced 14.3% of global GDP. Every decade since 1981 the GDP of China has represented a large portion of total global economic output. In 1981 China’s GDP only account for 2.3% of world output.

Other interesting observations include:

• India, the third largest economy in the world today, represented only 2.6% of global output in 1981, good for 8th in the world. Today the country contributes 5.7%.
• After providing 10.2% of global output in 1991, today Japan’s economy only contributes 4.8%.
• Collectively, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, delivered 22.0% of worldwide GDP in 1981, but last year contributed only 13.7%, just slightly less than China’s 14.3%.
• In 1981, Saudi Arabia and Australia were 14th and 15th respectively. In 2011 Saudi Arabia is 22nd and Australia 18th.
• In 1981 Indonesia (today 15th) was 21st and South Korea (today 12th) was 23rd.
• The IMF estimates that in the year 2017, China will surpass the United States as the largest economy in the world.

Click on the chart below for a larger view

 Data source: International Monetary Fund. All 2017 estimates made by the IMF. The former USSR was not included in this analysis.