Measuring how wealthy a country is is not that simple (it is not just about GDP). That measurement depends on how rich and poor countries are defined, writes the portal “Global Finance”, which published its research “The Richest and Poorest Countries in the World”.

According to that list, the richest countries in the world are Luxembourg, Singapore, the Republic of Ireland, and Qatar. Meanwhile, the poorest are Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Republic of Croatia is in 53rd place, Montenegro in 69th, Serbia 72nd, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 88th place, and Albania in 92nd place.

“If we simply take into account a country's GDP – the sum of all goods and services that a country produced during a period of one year – then we could conclude that the richest countries are precisely those with the highest GDP, such as the United States of America, China, Japan, and Germany. But how could the economies of, for example, Singapore or Luxembourg ever be measured against the economies of powerful structures when they are only small countries,” it says on the GFMAG portal.

Another problem with GDP is, as Global Finance writes, that it does not measure the distribution of wealth.

“Therefore, in order to determine which country is in the best position, more precisely the richest, a country's GDP should be divided according to the number of people living there. GDP per capita and its growth rate tell us much more about the social wealth potentially available to each person in that country, as well as whether this wealth is increasing or decreasing over time,” it is stated in the research text.

Source: irska.ie