Top 10 richest countries

What does it mean for a country to be rich? Although the answer may seem simple, because it would be enough to look at which ones generate the most wealth, the truth is that it is not that simple. To create this list you can choose several ways, such as comparing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is basically the sum of all the goods and services that an economy produces in a year. Simply by size, it's clear that the world's largest economies are the United States and China, according to World Bank data.

Now, if we divide that wealth by the number of inhabitants (which is GDP per capita), the richest are Luxembourg, Switzerland and Macao.

Although all of the above is correct, many economists prefer to examine the economic health of a country, using per capita "purchasing power parity", which considers the purchasing power of people in a given country. "As we are interested in monitoring the well-being of individuals, we tend to prefer the use of this indicator," World Bank economists Christoph Lakner, Espen Beer Prydz and Dean Jolliffe responded to BBC Mundo in an email. In this context, the richest countries are Qatar, Macao and Luxembourg, followed by Singapore, Brunei and Kuwait. The list is completed by the United Arab Emirates, Norway, Ireland and Switzerland.

The 10 richest countries in the world with their purchasing power of the inhabitants (in US $) Qatar $118,207
Macau $97,751
Luxembourg $94,920
Singapore $81,443
Brunei $71,788
Kuwait $68,861
United Arab Emirates $67,133
Norway $64,139
Ireland $63,301
Switzerland $57,427.