25 Richest Countries in the World

Along with the United States, Canada is one of only two North American countries to rank among the wealthiest in the world. Canada has one of the largest proved oil reserves of any country in the world — and unlike many other oil rich nations, Canada also benefits from a diverse economy. In addition to crude and refined petroleum, cars and vehicle parts ranked among Canada’s top exports in 2017.

Australia’s GNI per capita of $44,097 is higher than that of all but 18 other countries. A well-educated population is one of the hallmarks of a wealthy nation, and in Australia, 31.7% of adults have a college education, one of the highest educational attainment rates in the world.

Though Australia shaped its economic policy based on European and North American models, today, the vast majority of its trading partners are in Asia.

Austria is a landlocked country in Central Europe that shares a border with two other countries on this list — Germany and Switzerland. Austria’s $455.7 billion economy is larger than the GDPs of certain countries that are home to many times more people. The country’s economy is heavily diversified, and its $148 billion in exports in 2017 included medicine, cars, and other complex machinery, in addition to precious metals and agricultural products.

The largest economy in Europe and one of the largest in the world, Germany has a GDP of $4.0 trillion, which trails only superpowers like the United States and China as well as Japan. The wealth and relative economic strength of the German economy is important to the overall well-being of the European Union, particularly as the United Kingdom continues to work out its planned withdrawal. Germany is the largest economic contributor to nations within the union.

All three Scandinavian countries rank among the 25 wealthiest countries in the world, and Sweden, the most populous of the three, ranks last, with a GNI per capita of $47,937. Like most of the wealthiest countries in the world, Sweden has a high life expectancy at birth of 82.3 years, nearly four years higher than that of the United States.