But headline stats like GDP, GDP per capita, or growth rates don't always reflect what's happening at the individual level.

So, has life actually improved over time?

To help answer that, Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao visualizes figures from Our World in Data to show how daily median incomes have changed in 20 of the world's largest economies from 1994 to 2024.

Countries by GDP, Daily Median Incomes, and Income Growth

There's two different takeaways from this chart. One is which top 20 economies have the highest average incomes in 2024.

The other is where incomes have grown the most.

Note: *Australia's change is between 1994–2023 due to data restraints.