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Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of the goods and services produced by the country’s economy minus the value of the goods and services used up in production. GDP can be determined in three ways, using production, income, or expenses. It can be customized for inflation and the population to give deeper insights.
Thus, the GDP presents a country’s financial snapshot, used to evaluate the size of an economy and growth rate. But not the entire territory of any country in the world is economically active. Some regions of the Earth have a much higher GDP density.
GDP Density is a measure of economic activity by area. It is defined as GDP per square kilometer and can be estimated by multiplying the GDP per capita of an area by the population density of that area.
The maps below show how unevenly GDP is distributed across the world.
Countries by GDP per Square Kilometer
Countries Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and microstates (San Marino, Vatican, Monaco, Luxembourg) have the highest gross domestic product per square kilometer globally. The map below shows nations by GDP per square kilometer in 2017.
The map below shows countries by 2017 Nominal GDP per Square Kilometer vs. 2022 International Monetary Fund forecast.
Reddit user: pdimitrakos. Data: International Monetary Fund
Country Subdivisions by GDP per Square Kilometer
The map below created by Sagepub shows the GDP density for every administrative division.
According to the map, the highest GDP densities are found on the east and west coasts of the United States, Western Europe, the eastern provinces of China, South Korea, and Japan.
