GDP Per Head (Economic Well-being)

GDP per head (or GDP per capita) is one of the key measures of changes in economic well-being across countries.

Changes in GDP per head for a selection of countries is shown in the chart. 

Poland and Greece represent 2 extremes in growth in GDP per head since 2007. 

Poland was largely unaffected by the economic downturn - it was one of the few countries inside OECD to avoid a full-blown economic recession - and the data shows that Poland recorded 0.8% average annual growth in GDP per head between Quarter 1 2007 and Quarter 3 2016. This was the best performance of all OECD countries. 

In contrast, GDP per head in Greece contracted in 25 of the 38 quarters between Quarter 1 2007 and Quarter 3 2016 – the highest number of all OECD countries. There has been a severe reduction in per capita incomes brought about by a process of internal devaluation and accentuated by the effects of deep fiscal austerity.