..........Richest Countries Of The World

To rank the world’s wealthiest countries, Forbes looked at GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power for 182 nations. We used International Monetary Fund data from 2010, the most recent available (GDP figures for some countries were projections). The PPP-adjusted GDP—preferred by economists when making international comparisons—takes into account the relative cost of living and inflation rates, rather than just exchange rates, which may distort real differences in worth. “In some countries, the wealth is equally distributed, while in others it’s very unequally distributed,” says Gian Luca Clementi, an associate professor of economics at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. “In Qatar, for example, the way it’s distributed is very unequal, and much of the population is actually very poor. The GDP is high because of oil revenues. And, if I were to use the GDP as an indicator of how well a country will do in the future, in Qatar what will matter is how well they actually invest it.”