Unexpectedly Intriguing!
04 January 2006

It was just a matter of time before we continued our GDP ranking series by moving into Asia, and now, Political Calculations has completed sorting through all the Gross Domestic Product (adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity) and population estimates for the nations of Asia in 2004 to produce the following dynamic table that you can sort through yourself by clicking any of the column headings! Doing so will automatically rearrange the data in the table from highest to lowest, richest to poorest, and vice-versa according to the category you select.

Update (9 January 2005): A sharp-eyed reader noted that I missed including Indonesia in the rankings - they're there now!

2004 GDP-PPP, Population and GDP-PPP per Capita for Asia
Country GDP-PPP (billions $USD) Population (2004 est.) GDP-PPP per Capita ($USD)
Afghanistan 21.5 28513677 754
Azerbaijan 30.0 7868385 3814
Bahrain 13.0 677886 19192
Bangladesh 275.7 141340476 1951
Bhutan 2.9 2185569 1327
Brunei 6.8 365251 18732
Burma 74.3 42720196 1739
Cambodia 27.0 13363421 2020
China 7262.0 1298847624 5591
Gaza Strip 0.8 1324991 580
Georgia 14.5 4693892 3078
Hong Kong 234.5 6855125 34208
India 3319.0 1065070607 3116
Indonesia 827.4 238452952 3470
Iran 516.7 69018924 7486
Iraq 54.4 25374691 2144
Israel 129.0 6199088 20810
Japan 3745.0 127333002 29411
Jordan 25.5 5611202 4544
Kazakhstan 118.4 15143704 7818
Korea, North 40.0 22697553 1762
Korea, South 925.1 48598175 19036
Kuwait 48.0 2257549 21262
Kyrgyzstan 8.5 5081429 1672
Laos 11.3 6068117 1859
Lebanon 18.8 3777218 4985
Macau 9.1 445286 20436
Mongolia 5.3 2751314 1938
Nepal 39.5 27070666 1460
Oman 38.1 2903165 13120
Pakistan 347.3 159196336 2182
Philippines 430.6 86241697 4993
Qatar 19.5 840290 23194
Saudi Arabia 310.2 25795938 12025
Singapore 120.9 4353893 27768
Sri Lanka 80.6 19905165 4048
Syria 60.4 18016874 3355
Taiwan 576.2 22749838 25328
Tajikistan 8.0 7011556 1134
Thailand 524.8 64965523 8078
Turkey 508.7 68893918 7384
Turkmenistan 27.6 4863169 5675
United Arab Emirates 63.7 2523915 25227
Uzbekistan 47.6 26410416 1802
Vietnam 227.2 82689518 2748
West Bank 1.8 2311204 779
Yemen 16.3 20024867 811
Asia (All) 21213.4 3865405252 5488

The Richest and Poorest Nations of Asia

The richest nations of Asia are unchanged from Political Calculations' 2002 rankings according to GDP-PPP per capita, with Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore continuing to occupy the top three tiers. What is different is that Hong Kong has surged past Japan to take the top ranking (since Political Calculations' previous 2002 analysis), clearly benefitting from its close ties to mainland China and that nation's substantial economic growth as Hong Kong becomes more integrated into its parent nation's economy.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the poorest nation in Asia is represented by the Gaza Strip, which is followed by Afghanistan and then by the West Bank. In fact, if the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are combined into a single entity, it would represent the poorest nation in all of Asia, with a combined 2004 GDP-PPP of $2.6 billion USD, an estimated population of 3,636,195 people (as of July, 2004) and a corresponding GDP-PPP per capita of $706 USD.

Data Sources:

Why 2004 data? Well, since 2005 just ended, the data for that year is still only in the estimate stage, and may be subject to considerable revision - the 2004 data is the most recent "stable" data available! The following links will take you where Political Calculations found the data presented in the table above:

GDP-PPP Data: 2004 GDP-PPP Data for Individual Nations
Population Data: July 2004 Population Estimates
GSP and GDP per Capita: This data was calculated by simply dividing the published GDP-PPP data by each nation's population estimate for July 2004.

Previously on Political Calculations

2004 Economic and Population Data

2002 Economic and Population Data

About Political Calculations

Welcome to the blogosphere's toolchest! Here, unlike other blogs dedicated to analyzing current events, we create easy-to-use, simple tools to do the math related to them so you can get in on the action too! If you would like to learn more about these tools, or if you would like to contribute ideas to develop for this blog, please e-mail us at:

ironman at politicalcalculations

Thanks in advance!

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