The Richest Countries in Europe

Which are the richest countries in Europe?

Sources:
Maddison Project
IMF
Blum, Ulrich (2011) : An Economic Life in Vain − Path Dependence and
East Germany’s Pre- and Post-Unification Economic Stagnation

[vgraphs]

Please, before commenting, make sure you know the meaning of "GDP PPP per Capita". Thank you.

[blazi]

wow germany had an amazing growth since 1934, I'm sure that was a fantastic government

[laszloilles]

It is no longer a secret that the success of the Irish economy is primarily due to large multinational companies. Several American companies have moved the center of their European operations to Ireland, where they account for their entire income, which they achieve on the continent (due to the lowest company tax in EU). This has a significant positive impact on GDP.

[alexander]

Luxembourg: financial center and tax haven. And Ireland: Starting in 2000 multinational companies, especially American (like Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon) have their European (or even international) headquarters in Ireland (Dublin) and pay a lower rate of 12.5% to Ireland. In this way, a company can earn billions a year in a particular (European) country but still pay very little to no tax there. This is because under EU law they can choose to put their headquarters in a country with a lower tax rate and take their profits there. This meant that all profits from all sales throughout the 27 EU countries, plus the UK, were channeled into Ireland. In that way many Multinationals have avoided paying corporation tax to individual European countries, instead booking all profits in Ireland. A new EU/G7 tax deal will probably/hopefully end this insane practice, as multinational companies will be taxed locally on at least 20% of profits above a 10% margin.

[r.k.]

Greece declined dramatically in the past 10 years. It was in the chart all those decades but not anymore

[abovebelowme]

Curious how lowest in this list (but not in Europe), Romania, is richer than 75% of the other countries in the world. That's how prosperous Europe is. All of listed countries by 2026 are in "high-income economy" club.

[alexanderjandosek]

Why didn't you include Czechoslovakia in interwar period?

[tomasGRAPHICS]

Dude, where is Czechoslovakia? It was one of the wealthiest countries on the planet from 1918 to 1938. And then, in 1994 there is still Czechoslovakia which separated in 1993. This video is wrong!

[amritsahu]

PPP is supposed to account for inflation...yet this video says that for decades the average Romanian was 10x poorer than the average person in Burundi, where the average person must work for three weeks to buy a bottle of oil, one month to afford a jar of nutella, and survive of scraps of garbage and where most people are starving. So you're telling me the Romanians lived off one tenth of that? Impossible.

[nc]

The only substantial changes:
-Inflation
-Britain got poorer
-Ireland steadily climbing to the top

[eileenbrid]

As an Irish American, it warms my heart that Ireland has turned itself into a first-class country. My ancestors escaped brutal poverty and living conditions for a better life here. Testament to the determination of the Irish people.

[pimschuitmaker]

Few notes:

It took a while before i figured out the music matches the number 1 country

I never realised San Marino would be that high up

If Monaco was in this, they would absolutely dominate this list

[karelloskot]

Je hezké, že Československo nemělo nic. To sestavoval nějaký chytrý člověk 😂😂

[radekdlesk]

Czechoslovakia, in twenties and thirties 10th richest country in the world, is missing.

[cosmocipher]

Ireland: 2nd place
Also Ireland: apartment crisis, not enough money to pay the rent

[stefanroberto]

It doesn't matter how poor I am, because I have a big heart 😘(fellow Romanian 🇷🇴)

[narutomgm]

I somewhat doubt that Romania was the poorest country in Europe for most of the 20th century.
How could Albania be twice as rich?

[atomic]

The song really fits with the video. Good job!

[juritulver]

There is an important shortcoming here: data for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are not available 1922-1939; Estonia was in 1939. above Finland and Latvia ahead of Estonia!

[cigh]

Ireland's GDP is artificially high due to foreign multinationals doing business there. The average Irish person can actually afford slightly less than the average UK person.

The elites of Irish society who actually benefitted massively from the Celtic Tiger years and beyond like to paint a different picture in which Ireland gloats at how much better they are than their neighbours, how much more 'progressive' they are, how much more economically better off they are - "Oh but look at how high our GDP is".

The price of modernity and globalisation for the average Irish person and Ireland has been not being able to afford a house despite having a good job, overpopulation and unchecked badly planned urban sprawl (everybody wants a house, but high-rise apartment complexes make more sense now), a dissolution of local language, dialect and culture in favour of mass culture (many Irish young people, especially young women in affluent areas nationwide, have taken on many American features into their speech).

Ireland has no economic independence anymore. Economically one economist said that Ireland looked more like a US region or State than an independent country. Once a country has been economically incorporated into another it's only a matter of time before the culture changes too, and that's been quite noticeable in Ireland's case. Being an English speaking country already helps with this process.