Richest Countries in the World 2024 - Global Finance Magazine

Liechtenstein has about 40,000 residents and the highest GDP per capita (PPP) in the world in 2026, at $195,372. The two facts are connected. GDP per capita divides everything a country produces in a year by the number of people who live there, so a small population turns a modest total into an enormous average. Liechtenstein's factories and banks are staffed largely by commuters from Switzerland and Austria, and the ranking counts their output while leaving them out of the headcount. The same arithmetic lifts Luxembourg to $156,719 on the strength of its cross-border workforce, and it lifts Ireland to $159,129 because multinationals book their profits in Dublin before sending them home to shareholders abroad.