Corvinus University of Budapest

Institute of Communication and Sociology

Departement of Sociology and Social Sciences
New Social History, 2020

Maddison Project Data Reseach

Rozsa Gyarmati-Szabo (J8XR1D)

 In this paper I would like to show my research and ideas about the connection of the
GDP and population growth after the WW2 in different regions of the world. For this I have
used the Maddison database of the University of Groningen.

The Maddison Data Project is a database founded by Angus Maddison (1926-2010),

who was a historian, and he made important research in quantitative macroeconomic,
including the measurement and analysis of economic growth and development. He was
professor at the University of Groningen, Netherlands from 1978 to 1997, and a founder of
the Groningen Growth and Development Center. This database is a worldwide, over 160
countries, coverage on GDP per capita collected from the 8th century to the present. To
compare income levels and developments for this period and set of countries, national income
estimates are converted from a national currency basis to a common currency which
measures price differences between countries.

3,000,000
Population
2,500,000

2,000,000 Asia (South and South-East)

Asia (East)
Sub-Sahara Africa
1,500,000
Latin America
Middle East
1,000,000 Western Europe
Eastern Europe
500,000 Western Offshoots

GDP pc 2011 prices

60,000
Western Offshoots
50,000 Western Europe
Eastern Europe
40,000 Middle East
30,000 Asia (East)
World
20,000 Latin America
10,000 Asia (South and South-East)
Sub-Sahara Africa
-
60

70

80

00

10

16

18
40

50

90

17
19

19

19

19

19

19

20

20

20

20

20
 After the WWII the population is started to rapidly increase, especially in Asia and
Africa, so did the GDP but the significant level of growth took place in western societies, in
Europe and the Offshoot countries. From the first 3 most populated regions two was and still
considered as poor, with the lowest GDP per capita in the word. As the average and most of
the regions GDP was growing, Asia (South and South-East) and Sub-Sahara Africa region
was stagnating and only after 2000 started to slowly increase, but still 2 or 3 times lower as
the average in the word. This tendency was a bit faster in eastern Asia. Probably because of
the fact that the government of China have brought out many households from the poverty.

In the recent years we can see a tendency of the consolidation in both population and
the GDP per capita chart. However, the gap is already enormous between the poor and the
rich regions and if we also consider the fact that poor countries are the most populated, we
should see this problem, and we should also be aware of it and find a solution.

Data:
• Meddison Project Database 2020
https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/

References:
• Jutta Bolt, Jan Luiten van Zanden (2020) - Maddison style estimates of the evolution
of the world economy