| 1500 | 1820 | 1992 | 2005 | |
| World Population (millions) | 425 | 1,068 | 5,441 | 6,477 |
| GDP per Capita | 565 | 651 | 5,145 | 6,775 |
| World GDP (billion 1990 US$) | 240 | 695 | 27,995 | 43,886 |
| World Exports (billion 1990 US $) | n.a. | 7 | 3,786 | 12,588 |
Source: Angus Maddison, Monitoring the World Economy: 1820-1992 (Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1995) p. 19; Population Reference Bureau, 2005 World Population Data Sheet (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2006), accessed at http://www.prb.org/pdf05/05WorldDataSheet_Eng.pdf, January 2006; International Monetary Fund, World Economic Database, 2005 (Washington, DC: IMF, September 2005) accessed at http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2005/, January 2006.