Comparing India and Pakistan by Economy

Source World Bank : Nominal, PPP, Nominal per capita, PPP per capita
International Monetary Fund
Date08 Dec 2023

As of 2023, With $3,732 bn, India's GDP is around eleven times higher than Pakistan's gdp of $341 bn. In nominal terms, the gap is wider (eleven times) than ppp terms (8.36 times). India is the 5th largest economy in the world in nominal method and 3rd largest economy in ppp method. The nominal ranking of Pakistan is 46, and the PPP ranking is 24. India's economically largest state, Maharashtra, has GDP ($398 billion) much greater than Pakistan. Even the second largest economy Tamil Nadu ($247 bn), is very close. The margin between these two countries was lowest in 1993 when the Nominal GDP of India was 5.39x of Pakistan, and the highest was in 1973 (13.4x).

Both countries together share 10% and 18.5% of total Asia's GDP.

Both countries have been neck-to-neck in gdp per capita terms. From 1960 to 2004, India was richer than Pakistan for only ten years, while pakistan was richer for 35 years. GDP per capita of Pakistan was 1.51x of India in 1970. Margin is being wider in favor of India since 2007. In 2023, India's per capita income was 1.78 times higher than Pakistan's on an exchange rate basis, that is an all-time high. 2004 is the previous year when Pakistan was richer than India. Both nations are at a very lower position in World GDP per capita ranking. The rank of India is 143 (nominal) and 131 (PPP). The world rank of Pakistan is 164 (nominal) and 142 (PPP). Out of 33 Indian states/UTs, 28 states/UTs are richer than Pakistan.

India's gdp growth rate was higher than Pakistan's in period 2001-2019 before Pakistan grew in 2020. India attains a maximum gdp growth rate of 9.63% in 1988 and a minimum of -5.83% in 2020. Pakistan reached an all-time high of 11.35% in 1970 and a record low of 1.27% in 2020. From 1961 to 2022, Pakistan grew by more than 10% in 3 years while India never. The GDP growth rate was negative in five years for India and Pakistan has expreinced a negative growth rate once.

According to CIA Fackbook, the sector-wise GDP composition of India in 2017 are as follows: Agriculture (15.4%), Industry (23%), and Services (61.5%). The sector-wise GDP composition of Pakistan in 2017 is Agriculture (24.7%), Industry (19.1%), and Services (56.3%).

  • GDP
  • GDP per capita
  • GDP growth

Projections by IMF

Year Nominal GDP (billions $) PPP GDP (billions Int. $) Nominal GDP capita ($) PPP GDP capita (Int. $) Growth (%)
IndiaPakIndiaPak IndiaPakIndiaPakIndiaPak
20233,732.22340.6413,119.621,568.432,6121,4719,1836,7746.332-0.475
20244,105.38-14,261.181,644.062,848-9,8926,9616.2932.500
20254,511.85-15,469.081,737.583,102-10,6357,2146.3273.600
20264,951.62-16,765.191,851.003,375-11,4267,5346.3164.500
20275,427.39-18,155.681,979.093,668-12,2717,8986.3495.000
20285,944.38-19,650.222,116.553,985-13,1738,2826.2635.000

Estimates by World Bank

Year Nominal GDP (billions $) PPP GDP (billions Int. $) Nominal GDP capita ($) PPP GDP capita (Int. $) Growth (%)
IndiaPakIndiaPak IndiaPakIndiaPakIndiaPak
196037.033.75--8382----
196139.234.12--8688--3.7235.987
196242.164.31--9089--2.9314.483
196348.424.63--10194--5.9948.689
196456.485.20--115103--7.4537.570
196559.555.93--119114---2.63610.419
196645.876.56--90123---0.0555.790
196750.137.46--96137--7.8265.401
196853.098.04--100143--3.3887.233
196958.458.68--107151--6.5405.508
197062.4210.03--112169--5.15711.353
197167.3510.67--118175--1.6430.468
197271.469.42--123151---0.5530.813
197385.526.38--14399--3.2967.064
197499.538.90--163135--1.1853.540
197598.4711.23--158165--9.1504.211
1976102.7213.17--161187--1.6635.156
1977121.4915.13--186209--7.2553.948
1978137.3017.81--206238--5.7138.049
1979152.9919.69--225254---5.2383.758
1980186.3323.65--267293--6.73610.216
1981193.4928.10--271333--6.0067.921
1982200.7230.73--275350--3.4766.537
1983218.2628.69--293315--7.2896.778
1984212.1631.15--278331--3.8215.065
1985232.5131.14--298321--5.2547.592
1986248.9931.90--312317--4.7775.502
1987279.0333.35--342320--3.9656.452
1988296.5938.47--356356--9.6287.625
1989296.0440.17--347360--5.9474.960
1990320.9840.011,048.24232.803693471,2042,0175.5334.459
1991270.1145.631,095.14252.853043831,2322,1211.0575.062
1992288.2148.881,181.50278.543183991,3022,2765.4827.706
1993279.3051.811,266.97290.163024131,3682,3114.7511.758
1994327.2852.291,380.19307.433464051,4602,3796.6593.737
1995360.2860.641,515.87329.453744561,5722,4757.5744.963
1996392.9063.321,660.16351.744004611,6882,5637.5504.847
1997415.8762.431,757.18361.444154421,7532,5574.0501.014
1998421.3562.191,886.85374.834134281,8472,5776.1842.550
1999458.8262.972,082.70394.024414212,0022,6328.8463.660
2000468.4082.022,211.69420.124425312,0872,7213.8414.260
2001485.4479.482,370.62444.854504992,1972,7944.8243.554
2002514.9479.902,499.15463.114694892,2752,8373.8042.508
2003607.7091.762,748.79499.545445502,4602,9937.8605.777
2004709.15107.763,046.21551.666246312,6813,2337.9237.547
2005820.38120.063,390.67606.057116892,9373,4767.9236.519
2006940.26137.263,777.03661.608027713,2223,7158.0615.899
20071,216.74152.394,176.28712.321,0238383,5103,9157.6614.833
20081,198.90170.084,387.76738.339949153,6363,9713.0871.701
20091,341.89168.154,763.06764.101,0978843,8934,0197.8622.832
20101,675.62177.175,229.91785.711,3519114,2164,0418.4981.607
20111,823.05213.595,618.38824.081,4501,0754,4674,1495.2412.748
20121,827.64224.386,153.16847.101,4341,1104,8284,1895.4563.507
20131,856.72231.226,477.52883.381,4381,1265,0174,3026.3864.396
20142,039.13244.366,781.02931.731,5601,1735,1874,4747.4104.675
20152,103.59270.567,159.80981.561,5901,2825,4124,6537.9964.731
20162,294.80313.637,735.001,010.731,7141,4695,7784,7348.2565.527
20172,651.47339.218,276.931,058.471,9581,5686,1124,8926.7954.433
20182,702.93356.139,022.941,150.591,9741,6216,5915,2366.4546.152
20192,835.61320.919,540.391,200.492,0501,4376,8985,3763.8712.498
20202,671.60300.439,101.321,200.661,9131,3226,5185,285-5.831-1.274
20213,150.31348.2610,370.901,335.992,2381,5057,3685,7739.0506.487
20223,385.09376.5311,874.601,518.042,3891,5978,3796,4377.0036.188