Introduction to Gross National Income (GNI) Per Capita

The World Bank estimates different countries' Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross National Income (GNI)¹ per capita expressed in a common currency - usually the US$ - for operational and analytical purposes.

Borrowing countries are ranked by per capita GNI to determine the terms under which loans are made. Per capita income is also used to classify countries into subgroups for analytical purposes. The countries are normally categorized into four subgroups: low income, lower-middle income, upper-middle income, and high income. It is necessary to convert per capita income measured in national currency into US$, or some other common currency, so that comparison can be made internationally. In converting to a common currency, a choice has to be made whether to use exchange rates, some kind of adjusted exchange rates (e.g., Atlas method) or purchasing power adjusted conversion factors (purchasing power parities, PPPs).

¹Gross National Income (GNI) is adopted in the System of National Accounts 1993 (93SNA) to replace the term Gross National Product (GNP), which was used in earlier versions of the SNA and in World Bank documents.