GDP per capita
/ per CAP-it-uh, Latin for per head /
A huge country and a tiny country can both have impressive total GDP, but that tells you nothing about how an ordinary person lives. A country of a billion people will out-produce a country of five million almost no matter what. To compare living standards fairly, you have to ask how much each person, on average, gets. GDP per capita does exactly that: it is total GDP divided by the population.
If a country has a GDP of 600 billion dollars and 30 million people, its GDP per capita is 600 billion divided by 30 million, which is 20,000 dollars per person per year. It is an average, a way of slicing the whole economic pie into equal shares to get a rough sense of typical prosperity. To compare countries you usually use real GDP per capita (so price changes do not distort it) and often adjust for purchasing power parity, because the same dollar buys far more in a low-cost country than in an expensive one.
GDP per capita is the most common single yardstick of average living standards and is closely watched as economies develop. But the word average hides a lot. It says nothing about how the income is shared, so a country with a comfortable per-capita figure can still have widespread poverty if a small group holds most of the income. It is a useful headline, not the full story, and it should always be read alongside measures of distribution and wellbeing.
Two countries might each have a total GDP of 1 trillion dollars, but if one has 10 million people and the other 100 million, their GDP per capita is 100,000 versus 10,000. The same total economy can mean a very different standard of living per person.
The same total GDP, split among more people, means less per person.
GDP per capita is an average, not a typical person's income. Because income is unevenly shared, the median (the person in the middle) is often far below the per-capita average, so a high figure can coexist with widespread poverty.