RANKED: The 29 richest countries in the world

Sean Pavone / iStock

Size doesn’t always mean wealth when it comes to the world’s richest countries, according to data published in April by the International Monetary Fund.

Twice a year the IMF releases a huge dump of data about the economic power of the world’s nations, with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita a key statistic. The IMF ranks the world’s countries according to their GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita.

The PPP takes into account the relative cost of living and the inflation rates of the countries to compare living standards among the different nations.

The small countries that dominate the top ten all have small populations compared to countries that lead the world purely in terms of GDP — such as the United States, China, or Germany.

Most of these small nations heavily depend on immigrant workers who often do not reside in the country they are working in or are not granted resident status, and are therefore not counted in the GDP per capita calculations.

We’ve included all the countries with a GDP per capita higher than $45,000 per year. Check them out below.