World GDP Over The Last 1700-2015

International dollars are a hypothetical currency that is used to make meaningful comparisons of monetary indicators of living standards.

Figures expressed in international dollars are adjusted for inflation within countries over time, and for differences in the cost of living between countries.

The goal of such adjustments is to provide a unit whose purchasing power is held fixed over time and across countries, such that one international dollar can buy the same quantity and quality of goods and services no matter where or when it is spent.

Read more in our article: What are Purchasing Power Parity adjustments and why do we need them?
Similarly, the history of economic growth is also the history of how large global inequalities emerged – in nutrition, health, education, basic infrastructure, and many other dimensions. In some countries, the quantity and quality of the goods and services underpinning these outcomes grew substantially over the past two centuries; in others, they did not.

Of course, economic growth does not reflect everything we value. On Our World in Data we provide thousands of measures that try to capture these many different dimensions, covering topics such as biodiversity, pollution, time use, human rights and democracy.