Short answers, pulled from the story.
The world economy is the economy of all humans on Earth, encompassing all economic activities conducted within and between nations, including production, consumption, trade, and financial transactions. It is inseparable from the geography and ecology of the planet, and economists measure it using tools such as nominal GDP and purchasing power parity.
Measured by purchasing power parity, the gross world product was an estimated $110.06 trillion in 2025. By market exchange rates, it reached $60.69 trillion in 2008.
As of 2026-12 countries and 2 collectives each account for at least 2 percent of global GDP by nominal or PPP terms, including the United States, China, India, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Russia, and Indonesia, along with the African Union and the European Union. The G7 nations together hold 43.8 percent of nominal global GDP.
The global economy contracted by 3.4 percent in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, an outcome better than the World Bank's initial prediction of a 5.2 percent decline. Cities, which account for 80 percent of global GDP, bore the heaviest losses. The world economy rebounded with an estimated 5.5 percent growth in 2021.
The World Institute for Development Economics Research found that the richest 1 percent of adults owned 40 percent of global assets, and the richest 10 percent owned 85 percent of total world wealth. Oxfam reported in 2014 that 85 individuals held wealth equal to the bottom half of the world's population, approximately 3.5 billion people.
Between 1820 and 2000, global income inequality increased by almost 50 percent, with most of that rise occurring before 1950. Inequality peaked around the 1970s, when income was split sharply between rich and poor countries. Since then inequality has been decreasing, and income distribution has shifted so that most people now live in middle-income countries.