Distribution of World Population & World GNP

India with its population of 832 million in 1989 and with its per capita income of $340 is among poorest of the economies of the world. It had a share of 15.9 per cent in world population, but a little more than 1 percent of world GNP.



Three observation made here regarding the U.N. classification of developed and developing countries on the basis of per capita income. First, there is gross inequality of incomes between the rich and the poor countries. Second, the gap in per capita income (and naturally in the level of living) between the rich and poor countries is even widening over the years—the annual rate of growth of per capita income of the rich countries was higher during 1965-89 as compared with the poor countries.


More recently, the growth rate among low-income countries has also shown an increase and if this is sustained, the gap may show a decline over a period. Third, all the high income countries are not necessarily developed countries. For instance, the high income oil-exporting countries have high per capita income but this is mainly due to their exports of oil; really speaking, they are not developed economies. Recently, with a decline in world oil prices, the GNP per capita has started showing a decline in this group.