What is the world's largest economy? How will the rankings be in 2050?

The economy of the United States is the largest in the world.

(US $ 18 trillion), representing a quarter of the global economy's share (24.3 percent), according to the latest World Bank figures.

Followed by China's $ 11 trillion or 14.8 percent of the global economy.

While Japan ranks third with an economy of $ 4.4 trillion, accounting for about 6 per cent of the global economy.

The European countries are ranked third on the list: Germany is in fourth place, with an economy of $ 3.3 trillion.

The United Kingdom ranked fifth with $ 2.9 trillion and France ranked sixth with $ 2.4 trillion.

India ranks seventh with $ 2 trillion, and Italy is in eighth place with an economy of more than $ 1.8 trillion.

Brazil is in ninth place with an economy of about $ 1.8 trillion.

In tenth place Canada, with an economy of more than $ 1.5 trillion.

The economy of the United States alone is larger than the economy of countries from the number 3 to 10 combined in the list.

The fastest growing economy

The United States may not dominate the world economy for long.

Although China is lagging behind the US by $ 7 trillion, it is catching up fast.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Chinese economy grew by 6.7% in 2016, compared with 1.6% in favor of the United States.

China has also overtaken India as the fastest growing economy.

The IMF's global economy forecast that China's economy grew by 6.7 percent in 2016, compared to 6.6 percent in India.

While the Brazilian economy shrank last year by 3.5%, the only one in the top ten to decrease rather than increase.

The graph above shows the world's 40 largest economies individually, grouped by continents in color.

It is clear that the Asian bloc has a larger share than anywhere else in the world, representing just over one-third or about 33.84% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP).

This compares to North America, which accounts for just over a quarter, or 27.95%.

Europe ranks third with just over a fifth of world GDP (21.37%).

Together, these three blocs account for more than four fifths (83.16%) of world GDP.

The largest economies in 2050

According to a new study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers,

That China will be ranked first by 2050, as emerging economies will continue to grow faster than developed economies.

India will be ranked second, the United States will be in third place, and Indonesia is expected to occupy fourth place.

The United Kingdom could fall to 10th place by 2050, while France is expected to emerge from the top 10 economic countries and Italy among the top 20 because of the rapid growth of other emerging economies such as Mexico, Turkey and Vietnam.

The report also notes that the world economy could double its present size by 2050, far exceeding the world's population growth, because of technology-based productivity.