The third stop in our continuing series comparing the relative economic performance of the nations of the world brings us to the entire Western Hemisphere!

As in previous weeks, we've once again provided a dynamic ranking table to show each of the countries' Gross Domestic Product (GDP) adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), their population and GDP-PPP per Capita for 2006. We've also determined each country's annualized rate of growth of their GDP-PPP per capita since 2004.

As we've seen in our rankings from previous weeks, the fastest growing nations in our survey all share a unique economic characteristic, or rather, they share one particular industry that has seen major growth as a major component of their economies. Unlike previous weeks though, it's not the oil industry - we'll have the answer to which industry it is below the table.

Speaking of which, you may sort the data in our dynamic table below by clicking any of the column headings. Doing so will sort the data in the table from low to high value or from high to low (by clicking a column heading a second time.) To restore the original order, you'll need to refresh the page in your web browser.

2006 GDP-PPP for the Americas

Country	Population	GDP-PPP	GDP-PPP per Capita	Pop. Est. Date	GDP Est. Date	% Change GDP-PPP per Capita, Since 2004
Antigua and Barbuda	69,108	1,145,000,000	16,568.27	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	22.9%
Argentina	39,921,833	608,800,000,000	15,249.8	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	11.1%
Aruba	103,484	2,396,000,000	23,153.34	July 2006 est.	2006 est. [2]	3.1%
Bahamas, The	303,770	6,556,000,000	21,582.12	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	10.5%
Barbados	279,912	5,146,000,000	18,384.35	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	5.8%
Belize	287,730	2,307,000,000	8,017.93	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	10.9%
Bolivia	8,989,046	27,870,000,000	3,100.44	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	10.1%
Brazil	188,078,227	1,655,000,000,000	8,799.53	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	4.2%
British Virgin Islands	23,098	1,008,000,000	43,640.14	July 2006 est.	2006 est. [2]	6.5%
Canada	33,098,932	1,178,000,000,000	35,590.27	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	6.3%
Cayman Islands	45,436	2,472,000,000	54,406.2	July 2006 est.	2006 est. [2]	11.5%
Chile	16,134,219	202,700,000,000	12,563.36	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	8.4%
Colombia	43,593,035	374,400,000,000	8,588.53	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	13.7%
Costa Rica	4,075,261	50,890,000,000	12,487.54	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	14.1%
Cuba	11,382,820	45,510,000,000	3,998.13	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	15.5%
Dominica	71,727	485,000,000	6,761.75	July 2006 est.	2006 est. [1]	10.4%
Dominican Republic	9,183,984	77,090,000,000	8,393.96	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	15.4%
Ecuador	13,547,510	61,520,000,000	4,541.06	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	10.1%
El Salvador	6,822,378	33,680,000,000	4,936.7	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	.3%
Grenada	89,703	982,000,000	10,947.24	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	49.1%
Guatemala	12,293,545	61,380,000,000	4,992.86	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	9.5%
Guyana	767,245	3,711,000,000	4,836.79	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	8.5%
Haiti	8,308,504	14,790,000,000	1,780.1	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	6.3%
Jamaica	2,758,124	12,820,000,000	4,648.09	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	6.4%
Mexico	107,449,525	1,149,000,000,000	10,693.39	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	5.6%
Netherlands Antilles	221,736	3,400,000,000	15,333.55	July 2006 est.	2006 est. [2]	16.8%
Nicaragua	5,570,129	17,330,000,000	3,111.24	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	16.3%
Panama	3,191,319	26,040,000,000	8,159.64	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	9.1%
Paraguay	6,506,464	31,260,000,000	4,804.45	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	-.3%
Peru	28,302,603	186,600,000,000	6,593.03	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	8.1%
Puerto Rico	3,927,188	75,820,000,000	19,306.44	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	7.2%
Puerto Rico	3,927,188	75,820,000,000	19,306.44	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	7.2%
Saint Kitts and Nevis	39,129	726,000,000	18,554.01	July 2007 est.	2006 est.	45.8%
Saint Lucia	168,458	1,179,000,000	6,998.78	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	15.2%
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	117,848	864,000,000	7,331.48	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	58.5%
Suriname	439,117	3,136,000,000	7,141.6	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	28.7%
Trinidad and Tobago	1,065,842	21,120,000,000	19,815.32	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	37.6%
United States	298,444,215	13,130,000,000,000	43,994.82	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	4.7%
Uruguay	3,431,932	37,540,000,000	10,938.45	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	11.2%
Venezuela	25,730,435	186,300,000,000	7,240.45	July 2006 est.	2006 est.	11.7%
The Americas (All)	884,834,571	19,300,973,000,000	21,813.09	July 2006	2006	5.7%

Caribbean Dreams

The big winners in growing their GDP-PPP per capita were many of the island nations of the Caribbean. While GDP-PPP figure is nearly double the previous year's figure with no good explanation, it's clear that the Caribbean was the place to be to realize rapid growth in the Western Hemisphere from 2004 to 2006.

The biggest clear winner would seem to be the island nation of Grenada. Here, the rebound of the island's tourism and agriculture industries following the destruction of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 helped seal a strong annualized rate of growth of 49.1% in GDP-PPP per capita over the two years since.

The next big winner would seem to be Saint Kitts and Nevis. Here, although we see the second greatest increase in GDP-PPP per capita in the western hemisphere, this result is partly an artifact of combination of the nation's decline in population and the revival of the tourism industry across the Caribbean from 2004 to 2006.

Here, the nation's population loss was in large part driven by its government's move to shut down its money-losing state-run sugar production operations in 2005, which resulted in an out-migration from the island. While this was happening however, the nation benefitted from the revival of tourism following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack against the United States, which greatly impacted this industry throughout the Caribbean. Strong tourism growth combined with a smaller population helps account for the nation's blistering 45.8% rate of GDP-PPP growth per capita.

Number three on the rapid growth rate scale is the nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Here, increased tourism combined with revenues from the island's oil refining and production operations, which benefitted from increasing world prices for oil and gasoline, helped deliver remarkable GDP-PPP per capita growth from 2004 to 2006.

Moving to the continents of North and South America, we find solid growth from Canada down through Chile, with some really impressive growth in Suriname, which has benefitted from higher world commodity prices for its large mining industry.

Sources and Acknowledgements:

• 2006 GDP-PPP Data: The World Factbook, 2007 - Primary Source
• 2006 GDP-PPP Data [1]: International Monetary Fund
• 2006 GDP-PPP Data [2]: Economist Intelligence Unit
• July, 2006 Population Estimate: The World Factbook, 2006 via Bartleby.
• Table Sorting Function: The Daily Kryogenix.

Previously on Political Calculations

2006 Economic and Population Data

• Africa GDP Rankings for 2006
• Asia GDP Rankings for 2006

2004 Economic and Population Data

• Pacific Rim: 2004 GDP Rankings
• GDP Rankings in Muslim Nations
• 2004 GDP Rankings for Asia
• European Union 2004 GDP Rankings
• GDP in Africa: 2004
• GDP Rankings of the Americas: 2004 Edition
• EU vs US: Two Years of Economic Data Later....

2002 Economic and Population Data

• EU vs USA
• Cool Tools and GSP
• GDP of the Americas
• GDP in the Muslim World
• GDP in Europe
• GDP: Africa
• GDP Along the Pacific Rim
• GDP in Asia
• GDP: And the rest...

Labels: gdp, rankings

- posted by Ironman at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Home |