Submitted by Taps Coogan on the 5th of January 2020 to The Sounding Line.

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The following video, by YouTube creator Number Story, shows the GDP of the 15 largest economies in the world since 1970. Of particular interest, it also shows the sector composition of each country’s GDP.

 

In 1970, the US had the largest economy in the world, followed by the Soviet Union, West Germany, Japan, France, the UK, Italy, and then China. The largest sector of the US economy was already ‘Other Activities,’ which consists mainly of the service sector items like financials, education, healthcare etc… Manufacturing was still a relatively close second.

By 1995, Japan’s economy had become a close second behind the US. At that point, the overall composition of the US and Japanese economies were relatively similar, with an increasing percentage of both economies coming from services.

Fast forward to today and China has taken Japan’s spot as the number two economy behind the US. Not too surprisingly, the US economy has become even more service sector focused, while China’s economy has retained a comparatively large manufacturing sector. Of course, keep in mind that China’s GDP figures are notoriously exaggerated.

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