Speed Read

The Commonwealth of Nations is growing rapidly in comparison to the ailing Eurozone

Measured by share of world GDP, the Commonwealth overtook the (1973) European Union in 2004

By the same measure, the Commonwealth is slightly larger than the current Eurozone

In 2016, the Commonwealth accounted for 3.9% more than the Eurozone in terms of world GDP share







Real GDP Growth 1970 – 2016 (year on year % change)







Economic growth in the Commonwealth has accelerated over the post 1973 period in sharp contrast to the EU, where the growth rate has been falling gently from an average of 3.6% in the 1970’s to only 1.7% in the past five years.



Looking at the Eurozone, EU, and Commonwealth from a market share of world GDP viewpoint, a similar pattern is evident. The charts below show the Eurozone and EU compared with Commonwealth share of world real GDP.









Finally, the chart below shows estimated population trends for the Eurozone compared with the Commonwealth for the 2016-2050 period. As can be seen, population growth in the Commonwealth alone is expected to rise by over 30% for this period, whereas the Eurozone population is expected to fall by 1.9%.





The Eurozone is defined as full members in 2016: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Spain..

The EU is defined as full members of the EU in 1973: Belgium, Denmark France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Netherlands (UK omitted).

The Commonwealth is defined in both charts as all members minus the UK. Due to difficulty in obtaining GDP data for small countries (Nauru) – this has been purposely omitted from the Commonwealth calculations. This is estimated to account for under 1% of Commonwealth GDP.

New members who have joined & left the Commonwealth since 1973 account for less than 1% of its total GDP. In both charts the EU/EZ start with a much larger share, but this advantage is shown to have steadily diminished over time, actually reversing in the original EU area, and clearly about to reverse using the Eurozone definition.

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The Commonwealth Growth Tracker: Note to Users

Use of these data should be made in the recognition that World Economics shall not have any liability for these data or bear any responsibility for any actions taken based on these data, and in no event shall be liable for damages of any sort arising from use of these data.





Please note that GDP growth estimates are subject to change & World Economics will update the monitor on a regular basis as further data becomes available.

Note: GDP calculations are based on Real GDP PPP data from the World Bank, and the IMF.For more information please consult the World Economics Growth M