TOP TEN RICHEST COUNTRIES

I realize that it is Monday and not last Friday when I am now posting this. You will have to excuse me and I will try to post my new blog this Friday. Well, you have been waiting for this blog for a week so I guess I might as well start, eh? As I was researching for this blog I found out that there are a lot of different ways to measure the wealth of a country. You could measure it by the exporting or by the importing. You could measure it my the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) but you have to choose between purchasing power parity, real growth rate or per capita. There are tons of ways to measure it, but I have decided to measure it by GDP (purchasing power parity). What is that, you ask? Purchasing power parity is basically measuring the gross domestic product of countries, but changing them all to the US Dollar so we can better understand. I have decided to use the CIA World Factbook as my resource for as many of the Tenner topics as possible. I think that since it is a government site it is probably the most accurate and up-to-date site around. So, the list below, then, is from the CIA World Factbook website of the GDP measured by purchasing power parity:

1. United States - $12,310,000,000,000
2. European Union - $12,180,000,000,000
3. China - $8,883,000,000,000
4. Japan - $4,025,000,000,000
5. India - $3,666,000,000,000
6. Germany - $2,480,000,000,000
7. United Kingdom - $1,818,000,000,000
8. France - $1,794,000,000,000
9. Italy - $1,667,000,000,000
10. Russia - $1,584,000,000,000

I should tell you that these are actually the top 11. The World was number one with $60,630,000,000,000. I did some calculations and these top ten wealthiest nations make up about 85% of the world's wealth. The remaining 200-something countries make up about 15% of the world's wealth then. Wow. I also did not realize that India was that wealthy. I would have guessed that it would be lower down on the list. Basically the list is America, Europe and some Asia. There are no African countries. There are no South or Central American countries. I thought that was interesting, although it was what I expected. Anyways, those are my results for this first Tenner. I am sure I will get more detailed and experienced as the blogs go on, but for now, I am just learning. So until Friday, adios, amigo and have a good week!
Jenna