The rise of Australia in the 21st century

Words: Bernard Salt Producer: Louise Starkey

Business and politicians have been eagerly awaiting the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) World Economic Outlook for 2022 to see where Australia sits in the pantheon of world economic forces and whether the country is rising or falling in relation to peer nations.

Australia currently ranks as the 12th largest economic force on the planet, up one spot from last year, having overtaken Brazil (now 13th) and up another spot from the previous year, having overtaken Spain (now 14th).

Very soon Australia could be ranked 11th, overtaking Russia (GDP $1776bn), which has five times the population of Australia — meaning that, in a broad sense, the average Aussie is five times richer than the average Russian.

The potential jump would be three notches from the pre-pandemic era. Not a bad effort for a nation of barely 26 million (but with access to the resources of an entire continent).

There is no country ranked above Australia with a lesser population. The only top-20 countries with a higher GDP per capita are Switzerland (population 9 million, $94,000 per capita) and the US (333 million, $69,000 per capita).

In 1991, Australia was positioned 10th or midway in a list of the 20 largest economies ranked by GDP (in US dollars) per capita. The "average income" of $18,656 at the time was positioned between No.11 Spain ($14,698) and No.9 Britain ($21,767).

The IMF database covers 190 countries with a combined GDP in US dollars in 2021 of $96,000bn, up 10 per cent from the pre-Covid year of 2019.

The Australian GDP jumped 18 per cent over this time frame (in US dollars) to reach $1633bn or roughly 2 per cent of global GDP in 2021.

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