Guides · WDI 2024
Country Data Guides
According to World Bank WDI 2024, United States leads total GDP while Monaco leads GDP per capita. These guides explain the units, vintages, and coverage behind that split.
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Economy size is not living-standard dollars
According to World Bank WDI 2024, United States is #1 of 214 by total GDP ($28.8 trillion) at GDP-per-capita rank 12 ≠ Monaco #1 by GDP per capita ($288,002) at total-GDP rank 155.
- $28.8 trillion
- United States total GDP (#1)
- #12
- United States GDP per capita rank
- $288,002
- Monaco GDP per capita (#1)
- #155
- Monaco total GDP rank
This extract stores World Bank GDP (current US$) and GDP per capita (current US$), 214 reporters in WDI 2024. It does not store a PPP series, so these guides never type a PPP ranking. Open /rankings for the full tables.
Understanding Development Indicators
What the World Bank WDI tracks, GDP, population, life expectancy, education, and poverty, and how these measures reveal development progress.
How to Compare Countries Fairly
PPP vs. nominal GDP, per capita measures, and the most common mistakes people make when interpreting cross-country statistics.
Global Health Indicators Explained
What WHO GHO data measures, key health metrics like life expectancy and infant mortality, and how health outcomes correlate with economic development.
Richest vs. Poorest Countries
Live current-US$ GDP per capita top and bottom from this WDI extract, plus why those ranks are not PPP living-standard ranks.
Global Health Indicators Compared by Region
Life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal mortality, and healthcare spending compared across world regions, with data tables and regional patterns.
OECD Health Systems Compared
How 38 OECD countries compare on healthcare spending, physician density, hospital capacity, life expectancy, and infant mortality, with live 2025 data tables.
Explore the data: Browse all countries · View indicators · Compare two countries
Methodology
Every guide on this page is written to explain a specific dimension of the data sources PlainCountries uses - Source: World Bank Open Data, Source: WHO Global Health Observatory, Source: ILO ILOSTAT, and Source: OECD.Stat - and how they fit together.
Writing standard. Guides use plain-English explanations backed by named indicators and direct links to the source agency. We do not summarise what secondary sites say; we summarise what the primary source agency publishes and cite the underlying indicator code so the reader can verify the claim.
Update cadence. Guides are updated when the underlying data release changes a methodology note, when a new indicator is added, or when an agency deprecates a series. Each guide shows its last-updated date at the top of the page and lists the specific data vintages it reports.
No imputation. When a guide reports a headline figure for a country, it is the value published by the source agency for a specific observation year. We never carry forward stale values or estimate missing data; where a value is unavailable, the guide says so explicitly.
For the full site-wide methodology, see the methodology page or the browse directory.