Wealth
Humanity's total accumulated net wealth - land, buildings, precious metal, and over time financial assets - from 1 CE (Rome) to today. Wealth is derived from GDP via the wealth-to-income ratio (β): β is around 6 across most of history, 3,5× between the two world wars through destruction and inflation, and 6,2× today (world net worth 734 T $ ÷ 118 T $ GDP).
Wealth is not shown for the BCE periods: there is no source giving a single world wealth figure before Rome. 1 CE – 1900 is model / reconstruction. At 1 CE wealth is mostly land + precious metal + buildings; no financial assets. Today 50% financial, 50% real.
Did wealth grow with income
Four series on one log panel, indexed to 1 CE = 100. Wealth (686×) and total GDP (664×) run almost parallel - the wealth-to-income ratio β stays around 6 across history. Wealth per capita is only 16,1×; the gap is population. The dip between the two world wars is β's lowest point (3,5×).
Time points are evenly spaced, not to real time scale.
Composition of wealth: real or financial
How much of wealth is a physical thing (land, buildings, equipment, precious metal), and how much is a financial claim (equities, bonds, deposits). At 1 CE it is all real; the financial share appears only after 1800, reaches 30% by 1970 and 50% today.
Real wealth is still growing in absolute terms (2025: 367 T $); financial wealth caught up with it, it did not replace it. The rise of the financial share is financialisation. The low total in 1950 reflects the destruction of real assets in the two world wars and inflation.
More per person, or more people?
How much of each period's wealth growth came from population, and how much from per-capita wealth accumulation. The bars below show the annual growth rate per period: the stall around 1950 reflects wartime destruction and inflation.
Two ratios describe the character of wealth. β (wealth/GDP): how many times annual income the wealth stock is - around 6 across history, 3,5× between the wars. Turnover: market flow relative to the wealth stock - 0,2× in 1900, 13,3× today: the whole stock changes hands that many times in a year.
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| MÖ 10.000 | - |
| MÖ 8.000 | - |
| MÖ 6.000 | - |
| MÖ 4.000 | - |
| MÖ 2.000 | - |
| MS 1 | 6 × annual GDP |
| MS 1000 | 6 × annual GDP |
| MS 1700 | 6 × annual GDP |
| MS 1800 | 6,5 × annual GDP |
| MS 1900 | 6,5 × annual GDP |
| MS 1950 | 3,5 × annual GDP |
| MS 1970 | 4,5 × annual GDP |
| MS 2000 | 5,5 × annual GDP |
| MS 2025 | 6,2 × annual GDP |
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| MÖ 10.000 | - |
| MÖ 8.000 | - |
| MÖ 6.000 | - |
| MÖ 4.000 | - |
| MÖ 2.000 | - |
| MS 1 | - |
| MS 1000 | - |
| MS 1700 | - |
| MS 1800 | - |
| MS 1900 | 0,22 × / yr |
| MS 1950 | 0,7 × / yr |
| MS 1970 | 0,52 × / yr |
| MS 2000 | 4,88 × / yr |
| MS 2025 | 13,26 × / yr |
The world's historical income statement
Layer 2 reads world GDP like a company income statement: from revenue (GDP) it subtracts the value of the resource drawn from nature, employee compensation (D1), depreciation (P51C) and production taxes (D2X3); what remains is net profit. The 2025 figures come from Layer 2's material-adjusted P&L; for the past, the GDP share of the four items is estimated by period (Clark 2010; Piketty & Zucman 2014; ILO / PWT). The net-profit share was 69% of GDP before industrialisation and is 19% today: as the wage and depreciation bills grew, profit's share fell.
| yr | GDP | − Resource cost | − Wages | − Depreciation | − Taxes | = Net profit | Net-profit share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MÖ 10.000 | 178 milyon $ | −100 milyon $ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 milyon $ | 69% |
| MÖ 8.000 | 285 milyon $ | −100 milyon $ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 200 milyon $ | 69% |
| MÖ 6.000 | 926 milyon $ | −300 milyon $ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 600 milyon $ | 69% |
| MÖ 4.000 | 2,5 milyar $ | −700 milyon $ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1,7 milyar $ | 69% |
| MÖ 2.000 | 7,1 milyar $ | −2,1 milyar $ | −100 milyon $ | 0 | 0 | 4,9 milyar $ | 69% |
| MS 1 | 178 milyar $ | −27 milyar $ | −18 milyar $ | −5,3 milyar $ | −5,3 milyar $ | 123 milyar $ | 69% |
| MS 1000 | 235 milyar $ | −33 milyar $ | −26 milyar $ | −7 milyar $ | −9,4 milyar $ | 160 milyar $ | 68% |
| MS 1700 | 598 milyar $ | −72 milyar $ | −108 milyar $ | −24 milyar $ | −30 milyar $ | 365 milyar $ | 61% |
| MS 1800 | 1,1 T $ | −118 milyar $ | −235 milyar $ | −53 milyar $ | −53 milyar $ | 609 milyar $ | 57% |
| MS 1900 | 3,4 T $ | −310 milyar $ | −1,1 T $ | −276 milyar $ | −207 milyar $ | 1,6 T $ | 45% |
| MS 1950 | 8,2 T $ | −655 milyar $ | −3,3 T $ | −901 milyar $ | −573 milyar $ | 2,8 T $ | 34% |
| MS 1970 | 21,4 T $ | −1,5 T $ | −10 T $ | −3 T $ | −1,5 T $ | 5,3 T $ | 25% |
| MS 2000 | 55,9 T $ | −3,4 T $ | −26,8 T $ | −9,5 T $ | −4,5 T $ | 11,7 T $ | 21% |
| MS 2025 | 118 T $ | −6,5 T $ | −57,9 T $ | −21,2 T $ | −10 T $ | 22,5 T $ | 19% |
The items close the identity: resource cost + wages + depreciation + taxes + net profit = GDP. Amounts in 2025 USD equivalent. Confidence in the share estimates is low for the pre-industrial points (Methodology §4c).
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| MÖ 10.000 | 69 % of GDP |
| MÖ 8.000 | 69 % of GDP |
| MÖ 6.000 | 69 % of GDP |
| MÖ 4.000 | 69 % of GDP |
| MÖ 2.000 | 69 % of GDP |
| MS 1 | 69 % of GDP |
| MS 1000 | 68 % of GDP |
| MS 1700 | 61 % of GDP |
| MS 1800 | 57 % of GDP |
| MS 1900 | 45 % of GDP |
| MS 1950 | 34 % of GDP |
| MS 1970 | 25 % of GDP |
| MS 2000 | 21 % of GDP |
| MS 2025 | 19 % of GDP |
Raw series and data table
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| MÖ 10.000 | - |
| MÖ 8.000 | - |
| MÖ 6.000 | - |
| MÖ 4.000 | - |
| MÖ 2.000 | - |
| MS 1 | 1,1 T $ (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1000 | 1,4 T $ (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1700 | 3,6 T $ (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1800 | 6,9 T $ (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1900 | 22 T $ (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1950 | 29 T $ (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1970 | 96 T $ (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 2000 | 307 T $ (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 2025 | 734 T $ (2025 equivalent) |
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| MÖ 10.000 | - |
| MÖ 8.000 | - |
| MÖ 6.000 | - |
| MÖ 4.000 | - |
| MÖ 2.000 | - |
| MS 1 | 5.632 $ / person (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1000 | 4.700 $ / person (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1700 | 6.034 $ / person (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1800 | 7.060 $ / person (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1900 | 14.359 $ / person (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1950 | 11.464 $ / person (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 1970 | 25.976 $ / person (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 2000 | 50.389 $ / person (2025 equivalent) |
| MS 2025 | 90.663 $ / person (2025 equivalent) |
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| MÖ 10.000 | - |
| MÖ 8.000 | - |
| MÖ 6.000 | - |
| MÖ 4.000 | - |
| MÖ 2.000 | - |
| MS 1 | 0 % of wealth |
| MS 1000 | 0 % of wealth |
| MS 1700 | 0 % of wealth |
| MS 1800 | 3 % of wealth |
| MS 1900 | 15 % of wealth |
| MS 1950 | 22 % of wealth |
| MS 1970 | 30 % of wealth |
| MS 2000 | 42 % of wealth |
| MS 2025 | 50 % of wealth |