Table 8. Poorest and Richest Countries in the World, 2007(or latest available) in PPP constant 2005 intl. dollars
Poorest 10 Richest 10
Country GDPcapita^ per Population Country GDPcapita^ per PopulationCongo, DRC 281 62,522,787 Qatar 75,415 1,137,5 53
Burundi 349 7,837,981 Luxembourg 74,422 479,993
Liberia 350 3,627,285 UAE 52,944 4,363,913
Eritrea 599 4,781,169 Singapore 49,739 4,588,600
Niger 599 14,139,684 Norway 48,800 4,709,153
Timor-Leste 675 1,064,141 United States 43,662 301,580,000
Cen. Afr. Rep. 683 4,257,403 Ireland 41,136 4,356,931
Malawi 697 14,439,496 Hong Kong 39,958 6,925,900
Sierra Leone 702 5,420,400 Switzerland 37,854 7,551,117
Mozambique 741 21,869,362 Netherlands 37,466 16,381,696
Source: Authors’ calculations using World Bank (2011)
1.C. The takeaway
Both income distribution accounting models offer strikingly similar
results. Under market exchange rates, we inhabit a planet in which
the top quintile controls more than 80% of global income
contrasted by a paltry percentage point for those at the bottom.
While the disparity improves under PPP exchange rates (67% to
2.6%), both models reveal a world that is deeply corroded by
income disparities. Each of the accounting methods and exchange
rate scenarios also suggest that some progress is taking place for the
poorest; however, the sluggish pace of change is clearly
unacceptable. Using the rate of change under the global accounting
model with market exchange rates, it took 17 years for the bottom
billion to improve their share of world income by 0.18 percentage
points, from 0.77% in 1990 to 0.95% in 2007 (see Q1 in Table 1).
At this speed, it would take more than eight centuries (855 years to
be exact) for the bottom billion to have ten percent of global
income.^26
(^26) Under PPP-adjusted exchange rates, it would take about three centuries (272
years) (see Q1 in Table 5).