Income per Person (GDP per capita, PPP) in United States: 1800 to Today (and Tomorrow)

At MYRIAD, we look at the statistics of human lives to understand the material reality of our shared history. When we examine the average yearly economic output per person, adjusted for purchasing power in 2017 international dollars, we are measuring the concrete resources available to sustain human existence. For the United States, every single value in this dataset tells a statistical story about the actual lives lived across generations, reflecting how much wealth was generated within the economy for every man, woman, and child.

The historical arc across three centuries reveals a sweeping upward trajectory of economic output. In the 1800s estimate, income per person stood at 2,551 intl-$. By the 1900s estimate, it had risen to 6,682 intl-$. The growth continued steadily through the decades, reaching 15,534 in the 1950s and climbing to 38,768 in the 1990s. In the 2020s, income per person stands at 63,500 intl-$ — ranking #6 of 157 countries. Projections stretch far into the future, moving from 73,025 in the 2030s projection up to 150,000 in the 2090s projection and the 2100s projection.

If you were born in the United States across these changing eras, your material world was defined by these exact economic benchmarks. Whether experiencing the early estimates of the nineteenth century or the high output of the modern era, your daily environment was shaped by the productive capacity of your time and place. Where do YOU rank among everyone ever born? →