Why does India have such a poor per capita GDP, which is even below some African countries? Why is PM of India thum his chest when India has a very poor rank of 142 out of 194 world economies based on per capita GDP?

为什么印度的人均GDP那么低，甚至比某些非洲国家还要低？按人均GDP计算，印度在世界194个经济体中只排142位，为什么印度总理还总是一副“我自豪我骄傲”的样子？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Prashant Singh

Passionate about Economics and Politics Author has 128 answers and 69K answer viewsSep 13

The formula of GDP per capita is GDP/population, due to high population our GDP per capita is low that doesn’t mean that living standards are low compared to African countries, in fact our living standards are much better than countries like Bangladesh, Srilanka, Nepal, Pakistan and almost all African and Latin American countries. So don’t go by rankings , prosperity of a country is dependent on the strength of its currency today 1 USD is equivalent to Rs 80 which is better than many African, Latin American and South Asian countries

人均GDP的公式是GDP/人口，由于人口众多，印度的人均GDP很低，这并不意味着我们的生活水平比非洲国家低，事实上我们的生活水平比孟加拉国、斯里兰卡、尼泊尔、巴基斯坦和几乎所有的非洲和拉丁美洲国家好得多。所以不要只看排名，一个国家的繁荣与否取决于其货币的实力，今天1美元相当于80卢比，这比许多非洲、拉丁美洲和南亚国家都要高得多。

Anil Garg

Author has 7.6K answers and 383.2K answer viewsSep 15

Per capita gross domestic product measures a country's economic output per person and is calculated by dividing the GDP of a country by its population.

It is a global measure for gauging the prosperity of nations and is used by economists, along with GDP, to analyze the prosperity of a country based on its economic growth.

人均GDP衡量的是一个国家的人均经济产出，计算方法是用一个国家的国内生产总值除以总人口。

这是衡量一个国家繁荣程度的全球性指标，经济学家们用它和国内生产总值(GDP)一起，根据国家的经济增长来判断其繁荣程度。

Analyzing global per capita GDP provides insight into global economic prosperity and developments.

Small, rich countries and more developed industrial countries tend to have the highest per capita GDP.

分析全球人均GDP可以洞察全球经济繁荣与发展情况。

富裕的小国和较为发达的工业国的人均国内生产总值往往排名靠前。

Bala Senthil Kumar

As requiredUpvoted by

Narasimha Swamy, MA Economics & Post Graduate, Berhampur University (1980)Author has 12K answers and 50.8M answer viewsSep 10

Do you see people rushing to those African countries, lining up to settle there?

Why not?

Because GDP and per capita GDP are numbers. Important numbers, but still, only numbers.

What you can buy for one dollar in one country is vastly different from what you can buy in another.

In any case, the rank in the question is wrong.

你有看到人们涌向那些非洲国家，争先恐后去那里定居吗?

为什么不去呢?

因为GDP和人均GDP都只是数字。虽然很重要，但也仅仅只是数字。

在一国用一美元可以买到的东西和在另一国可以买到的东西大不相同。

但不管怎么说，提问中提到的排名是错的。

Elephant moves slowly, and quietly. But it is not easy to stop when it is moving.

That said, India has a legacy population of poor people. Shrinking, but the legacy isn’t over yet. India once had more poor people than the whole of Sub Saharan Africa. But then, India isn’t struggling for survival. India also has a robust public distribution system that provides free or affordable foodgrains to its population (this is not counted as income).

大象行动时安静缓慢。但行动时要停下来并不容易。

印度有一大批贫困人口。虽然规模变小了，但仍有不少遗留问题。印度的贫困人口曾经比整个撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲还要多。但话说回来，印度还不至于为生存而挣扎。印度有健全的公共分配系统，向印度提供免费或便宜的粮食(不计入收入)。

Despite many lacunae in its public health system, most Indians do have access to free or affordable doctor visits and hospital time. In some states, the government hospitals are very good. Same with education.

So, how much money one needs to get by in India is a huge variable, and one that cannot be addressed by numbers that are applied across the board for comparison

尽管印度的公共卫生系统存在不少问题，但大多数印度人都有机会免费或花小钱就医住院。在一些邦，政府医院办得非常好。教育也是一样。

所以在印度，一个人需要多少钱很难界定，不能用简单的数字来作比较。

Pachu Dada Kumar 

Author has 1.3K answers and 132K answer viewsSep 11

Because of the huge Population, I mean largest among the de ocratic Countries. That's why howsoever big the GDP grows the same stands to a very low figure after dividing with a huge population of India. Moreover for the last few years things are going bad in economic terms so Indian GDP per capita may looks in such a poor form .

因为人口众多，我指的是印度的人口是民 主国家中最多的。所以无论印度的GDP增长多少，与庞大的印度人口相除后，只能得到一个非常低的数字。另外，过去的几年中，印度的经济越来越糟，所以印度的人均GDP才会这么难看。

Shyam Sunder Lal 

Author has 2.5K answers and 615.6K answer viewsSep 10

On per capita income India has poor record..

Modi Sarkar believes in big time propaganda and therefore talks high on what it suits for ..

On percapita GDP India is placed below Bangladesh..

Therefore to conclude that Government propaganda has to be taken with salt..

就人均GDP而言，印度确实很糟糕。

莫迪·萨卡尔喜欢喊口号，总是夸夸其谈。

印度的人均GDP低于孟加拉国。

所以结论是，政府说话还是谨慎点好。

Ankit Nigam

ObserverAuthor has 236 answers and 52.8K answer viewsSep 9

This is absolutely wrong.

This data is fudged.

No one from the analyzing body considered the positivity brought by the central government since 2014.

We are united more than ever and we live in harmony with people from different caste, creed, color, gender and economic background.

We have become a superpower and no one can challenge our supremacy anymore.

INR 1 = 80 USD = 90 EUR = 100 GBP.

这也错得太离谱了。

这个数据是捏造的。

分析师没有考虑到2014年以来印度中央政府带来的积极影响。

我们现在空前团结，与来自不同种姓、信仰、肤色、性别和经济背景的人和谐相处。

我们已经成为超级大国，没人能挑战我们的霸主地位。

1卢比= 80美元= 90欧元= 100英镑。

 Sandeepan Bose 

Author has 12.5K answers and 17.1M answer viewsSep 9

Right.

There is nothing to thump your chest about.

But the reason why India has a poor per capita GDP is because of the boon by Annapoorna Ma.

Ma Annapoorna has blessed 3 places on planet earth.

没错。

没什么好激动的。

Agriculture in India feeds every one in the country. If these people improve their productivity, it doesn't help them. It would bring down the prices of farm products.

Which means these people need to switch from agriculture sector to services sector or manufacturing sector. But how can they do this without formal education.

China had the same feudal system like India. All kids go through formal education. This is the reason why China could ramp up its manufacturing so fast.

印度的农业养活了印度人。提高生产力对他们没有帮助，还会降低农产品的价格。

这意味着这些人需要从农业生产转向服务业或制造业。但没有受过正规教育，他们怎么可能做到。

中国曾经和印度一样都是封建制国家。现在中国的孩子全都要接受正规教育。这就是中国制造业得以迅速发展的原因。

Francis Korkor

Geography/Archaeology M.A in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Geography, KU Leuven (Graduated 1998)Author has 1.1K answers and 3.2M answer viewsUpdated 3y

Why does Africa have a GDP of USD 2 trillion with a population of less than 1.3 billion, which is far ahead of India economically? Has the economic gap between India and Africa become wider?

Originally Answered: Why does Africa have a GDP of USD 3.3 trillion with a population of less than 1.3 billion, which is far ahead of India economically? Has the economic gap between India and Africa become wider?

A lot of people answer questions like this by pointing out the obvious, that because India is a country and Africa is a continent (made up of 54 countries), you can not compare the two regions.

It is not correct to think that the two areas cannot be compared. You can still do a comparison because these two regions of the world have similar statistics.

为什么非洲人口不到13亿，GDP却达到3.3万亿美元，在经济上远远超过印度？印度和非洲之间的经济差距拉大了吗?

很多人在回答这类问题时都一针见血地指出：印度是一个国家，而非洲是一个大陆(由54个国家组成)，这两者无法比较。

但要做比较也不是不可以，这两个地区有相似的统计数据。

Some people have answered a similar question elsewhere on quora by saying that half of Africa’s GDP is from only three countries (Nigeria, Egypt and South- Africa), so that makes India economically better of because the GDP of India all belongs to India as one whole country. Nothing can be further from the truth! What these people forget is that just as most GDP and development is concentrated in a few countries in Africa, the same can be said of India, where the GDP and development is concentrated in few cities like (Mumbai, Hyderabad, New Delhi). This situation is found in most countries, even advanced economies like Canada have more than half of GDP derived from few cities in the East and West coast of Canada.

有些人在quora上回答过类似的问题，说非洲一半的GDP来自三个国家(尼日利亚、埃及和南非)，这样比起来，印度的经济更好一些，因为印度的GDP都属于印度自己。事实远非如此！这些人忘了就跟非洲的大多数GDP和发展集中在几个国家一样，印度也一样，印度的GDP和发展集中在孟买、海德拉巴、新德里等少数城市。这种情况在大多数国家都存在，加拿大这样的发达经济体也是如此，超过一半的GDP来自于加拿大东西海岸的几个城市。

Now let me also state that to a citizen in India or Africa, whether the GDP is for a number of countries within the continent ( as is the case in Africa) or the GDP is for a single government (as is the case in India), it doesn’t matter very much, rather what matters to the average person is the per capita income.

对于印度或非洲的公民来说，GDP究竟是针对一块大陆上的几个国家(比如非洲)，还是针对单个国家(比如印度)，都不重要。对普通人来说，人均收入才是关键。

Now let me start by stating that Africa is going to surprise a lot of people in a few years. Currently Africa is being tipped as the global economic growth engine of the coming decades. Its vast natural wealth and favourable demographic profile are expected to turn the continent as a whole into a growth engine that is expected to run faster than any of the world’s current economic powerhouses, including China, Brazil and India.

我要说的是，非洲几年后会让人刮目相看。人们认为非洲是未来几十年全球经济增长的引擎。非洲丰富的自然资源和合理的人口结构，使得整个非洲大陆成为增长的引擎，经济增长速度将超过目前的所有经济强国，包括中国、巴西和印度。

By doing a good analysis of economic indicators, Africa’s economic situation is very similar to that of India today. No one thinks India is so poor, yet everybody thinks Africa is very poor.

分析经济指标后我们发现，非洲的经济形势与今天的印度非常相似。没有人认为印度穷，但大家都认为非洲很穷。

1. Now India’s current population of about 1.33 billion is very comparable to Africa’s current population of 1.25 billion

2. India’s GDP for 2017 was $2.5 trillion

3. Africa’s GDP for 2017 was $2 trillion

4. India’s GDP per capita was $1900

5. Africa’s GDP per capita was $1824

1.  印度目前的人口约为13.3亿，与非洲目前的12.5亿人口不相上下

2.  印度2017年的GDP为2.5万亿美元

3.  非洲2017年的国内生产总值为2万亿美元

4.  印度的人均GDP是1900美元

5.  非洲的人均国内生产总值为1824美元

Adjusted for purchasing power parity (ppp), the two regions might even be equal.

The only significant difference is that India is one country, where as Africa is made up of 54 countries.

根据购买力平价(ppp)调整后，这两个地区也差不多。

唯一大的区别是印度是一个国家，而非洲是由54个国家组成的。

Also the many countries in African are growing very fast economically. Things are not static in Africa as the media wants you to believe. The sub-Saharan African region has posted some of the highest growth rates in the world recently. Eg. Ethiopia 8.5%, Côté D’Voire 7.6%, Senegal 6.8%.

This pace of growth will ensure that most African countries will be “middle income” by 2025. The projected GDP of Africa in 2050 is $29 trillion, placing it in the same range as India’s projected 2050 GDP of $33 .

许多非洲国家的经济增长非常迅速。非洲的情况并不像媒体上说的那么不堪。最近，撒哈拉沙漠以南非洲地区的经济增长率位居世界前列。如：埃塞俄比亚8.5%，科特迪瓦7.6%，塞内加尔6.8%。

这个增长速度能让大多数非洲国家在2025年跻身“中等收入国家”。非洲2050年的GDP预计将达29万亿美元，与印度2050年预计的33万亿美元不相上下。

Constantly on the news, I hear the media praising India’s projected GDP for 2050, but they are always quite on Africa’s projected GDP, although both India and Africa will have similar population numbers, similar GDP’s, and similar per capita income by 2050. Africa may even surpass India since Africa’s land size is 9 times that of India (therefore more oil and natural resources in Africa than in India).

媒体经常盛赞印度2050年的GDP预测规模，但每次都跟非洲差不多，到2050年，印度和非洲的人口数量、GDP和人均收入都很相似。非洲甚至可能超过印度，因为非洲的土地面积是印度的9倍(非洲的石油和自然资源比印度更丰富)。

Let not lose sight of the fact that, the African continent is 30.37 million km². So therefore Africa is:

Three times (x 3) the size of the USA

Three times (x 3) the size of all Europe (which includes Russia).

Three times (x 3) the size of the China

And Nine times (x 9) the size of India

我们不要忘了，非洲大陆面积有3037万平方公里之多。因此非洲:

相当于美国国土面积的3倍

是整个欧洲(包括俄罗斯在内)面积的3倍。

是中国国土面积的3倍

是印度国土面积的9倍

People who compare such a large continent to small countries like USA/China/India, should know that if Africa were to be only one third of its size, it would had developed just as fast as the other areas.

把这么大的大陆和美国、中国、印度这样的小国相提并论的人应该知道，如果非洲的面积只有现在的三分之一，非洲的发展速度也会和其他地区一样快。

Also when talking about the contribution of various regions of the world to world development, people erroneously choose recent contributors to development over past contributors. For most part of the time, while the rest of the world was remote and inaccessible, Africans were develo the world's oldest record of human technological achievement: the oldest stone tools in the world have been found in Eastern and Southern Africa. The Africans also learnt to controlled fire, without which no human species would have survived, and then went ahead to populate the rest of Asia and Europe.

另外，在谈到世界各地区对世界发展所做出的的贡献时，人们总是只盯着近代，忘记了历史。在过去大部分时间里，当地球上的其他地区还是人烟罕至的蛮荒之地时，非洲人已经掌握了人类最古老的科学技术：人类最古老的石器工具已经在非洲东部和南部出现。非洲人还学会了控制火，如果没有火，人类无法生存，也不可能逐步迁徙到亚洲和欧洲的其他地区。

Deepak Mehta

Indian by birth.Author has 3.9K answers and 104.9M answer views3y

Why does India not aim for high GDP per capita instead of high GDP?

Why does India not aim for high GDP per capita instead of high GDP?

And how do you propose to do the former without the latter?

The GDP per capita has GDP in the numerator and the population in the denominator. The only way to increase it to either increase the numerator, or decrease the denominator, or if both are increasing, to ensure that the numerator is increasing at a faster pace.

The Indian population growth rate has been, through decades of effort, been curtailed to ~1.1% per annum.

为什么印度不追求人均GDP，只看重GDP?

如果没有漂亮的GDP，哪来漂亮的人均GDP？

人均GDP的分子是GDP，分母是人口。提高人均GDP的唯一方法是提高GDP，或者减少人口，或者两者同时增长，但是GDP的增长速度要更快。

经过几十年的努力，印度的人口增长率已经下降到每年1.1%左右。

If you want to increase the GDP per capita, you need to ensure that the GDP is increasing at a faster pace than the population.

In the last 50 years, India’s GDP per capita has increased by about 500%. At the same time, the world average has increased by only 120%.

如果想提高人均GDP，GDP的增长速度必须快于人口的增长速度。

在过去50年里，印度的人均GDP增长了约500%。而同期，全球平均仅增长了120%。

Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam

In 1990, India's GDP per capita was higher than China. What went wrong with India's economy?

Yes - in the year 1990 - India and China had very similar GDPs - India with 332 Billion USD and China with 375 Billion USD but China had $ 51 per capita less than India ($ 317 to $ 368).

Lets go to the basics. India was still ahead in Manufacturing. Indian quality was far, far better than the Chinese stuff.

So what went wrong with Indias economy?

是的，1990年的时候印度和中国的GDP非常接近，印度3320亿美元，中国3750亿美元，中国的人均GDP比印度低51美元(317美元 VS 368美元)。

印度当时的制造业领先于中国。印度产品的质量远远好于中国产品。

所以印度经济出了什么问题？

The most basic difference

China identified that they were a third world economy, identified that their products were fifth rate and decided to do something about it. They faced the Situation

India refused to admit to being a Third world economy except when it came to justifying public expenditure. They refused to identify their products as fifth rate. They refused to do anything about it. They refused to admit reality.

Instead they began the Ostrich effect. Hiding behind Mediocrity and putting a positive spin on everything.

最基本的区别在于：

中国清楚地意识到自己是第三世界经济体，意识到自己的产品不入流，决心采取措施解决。他们勇于面对现实。

但印度拒绝承认第三世界经济体的身份。他们拒绝承认自己的产品有问题。他们拒绝采取任何措施。他们拒绝承认现实。

他们学起了鸵鸟，不愿意正视现实，凡事总往积极的方面想。

The Indian Economy is a result of Indias Attitude.

Indian Manufacturers made fifth rate products because - they can. They didnt have the competition. If the slightest competitors came up - They would WHINE and run to the Government and use the formula of “Influence” to prevent competition.

印度经济的现况就是这个心态导致的后果。

印度制造商生产劣质商品。他们没有竞争。只要有竞争者出现，他们就抱怨连天，让政府出面用“影响力不好”的说辞来终结竞争。

Meanwhile China opened up everything. They sent students all over the world to learn and come back with valuable inputs. They opened up their universities offering huge sums to Visiting Professors from Canada or Britain or USA who were willing to overlook the “Co unist” tag. They slowly and steadily learnt - then started their own manufacture and began to manufacture all the components and finally the entire finished product.

The Attitude was already a massive defeat.

与此同时，中国彻底执行了改革开放。他们把留学生送到世界各地学习，带回宝贵的知识。他们开放大学，为加拿大、英国或美国的访问教授提供巨额资金。他们稳扎稳打，日积月累地学习，然后开始自己生产，慢慢地生产所有部件，最后生产出成品。

态度就足够打败一切了。

The second reason is the Indian Attitude of Short cuts

Short term fast money is better than Long Term slow but huge mounds of money

As a result - even before we could better our manufacturing - we moved into Services. Glorified Haircutting Saloons or Massage Parlors.

第二个原因是印度人总爱走捷径

印度人更喜欢眼前看得见的快钱

结果，我们的制造业还没发展好，就进入了服务业。理发沙龙或按摩院更热门。

Our IT still focused on doing Project work for Foreigners using their Technological Developments while Chinese IT is focusing on R & D and develo their own core technology and doing landmark projects for their own companies. In 10 years- They will wipe us off the face of the map even in the IT field.

The Chinese are long term players. They preferred manufacturing instead of services. First manufacturing for Foreigners, then slowly develo the technology to make components, then sub components and finally making the whole product at cheaper cost. Today over 85% of exported goods are made by them and their own companies.

我们的IT业还满足于用自己的技术为外国人做项目，而中国的IT业则着眼于研发和开发自己的核心技术。10年后，他们的IT业就会取代我们。

中国人有长远目光。相较于服务业，他们更喜欢制造业。先帮外国人加工，然后慢慢开发加工零部件的技术，然后是子部件，最后成功用更低的成本生产出整个产品。今天，85%以上的出口商品是中国企业制造的。

Sunil Thakore

How long will it take for India to catch up with Africa's GDP/Capita?

I do not understand how you can compare a continent to a country. It is similar to asking the same of Germany and Africa. It places notthing in context.

我不明白你是怎么回事，把一个国家拿来跟一整个大陆比。这就好比把德国拿来和非洲对比。这根本没有意义。

Balachandran Krishnamoorty

The GDP per capita of India is low, but when I went to India, it didn't seem like a poor country. Even in rural parts, the people were really happy. Decent infrastructure was present everywhere.Why?

The Western media takes pleasure in portraying India as a nation of beggars. All they know about India is it is a land of snake charmers anf performers of the rope trick. They apply Western yardstick in determining poverty level. Just because every Indian does not own a BMW , India cannot be regarded as dirt poor. India is the only country in the world where rice can be bought at Rs 3 a kg and wheat at Rs 2 a kg. India may not be rich by American standards but it is certainly not poor by Indian standards. That is what counts ultimately.

西方媒体总喜欢把印度描绘成一个乞丐之国。他们对印度的了解就是，印度是一个耍蛇者和耍绳者的国度。他们用西方的标准来定义贫困。不能因为并非每个印度人都拥有宝马汽车，就认为印度非常贫穷。印度是世界上唯一一个大米价格仅为每公斤3卢比，小麦每公斤2卢比的国家。按照美国的标准，印度可能算不上富裕，但按照印度的标准，印度绝对不穷。