The US economy is the largest economy in the world. Last year it accounted for more than 1/4th of the world’s GDP. Following the US were Japan, Germany, China and UK. In the top 10 rankings noted below, just two developing economies are represented. China and Brazil are leading the emerging economies by taking a significant portion of the world’s GDP. However due to its population and growth, China’s share of world’s GDP is more than double that of that of Brazil.

By 2050, China is projected to jump to number one overtaking the US. India is estimated to become the third largest economy. Replacing many of the developed countries will be other emerging markets like Mexico, Indonesia and Russia. Similar to Brazil, Indonesia has lots of potential to grow due to abundance of natural resources and a huge population, the majority of whom follow Islam.

In the early 1800s, China and India used to the world’s largest economies. Even colonial powers like the UK and France  were behind with accounting for just 5.4% and 5.2% of the world’s output at that time. The US was at number nine in the 1800s. From being a small economy in 1820, the US economy has grown at an astonishing rate to become the largest economy in the world now. Clearly the US economy has outperformed the former economic powers of UK, France, Spain, Japan in the developed world.