Supply Chain

Just How Big Are India and China?

Nov. 10, 2010

Traveling to the world's two most populous countries can be an unforgettable experience. The scope and magnitude of the sheer humanity there can consume you.

Whether in Beijing, Bangalore, Chongqing, Chennai, or hundreds of other cities, the visitor is awestruck by the omnipresent construction cranes, traffic jams, and non-stop activity all around them.

As President Obama departs India, having inexorably linked economic growth in India to that of America, and now moves on to the G-20 Summit in South Korea to confront China over the Fed's recent quantitative easing, we would do well to remember just how big- or not so big- India and China really are.

Beyond their populations, which combined represent more than a third of all human beings on the planet, their aggregate GDP totals $6.1 trillion: China $4.9 trillion and India $1.2.

Conversely, the U.S. economy is $14.3 trillion- well more than double the size of the two Asian giants put together.

In fact, if you took the economic output of only seven U.S. states (California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey), it would exceed that of India + China.

It will be interesting to see how the President handles himself.

Size should matter

About the Author

Andrew R. Thomas Blog | Associate Professor of Marketing and International Business

Andrew R. Thomas, Ph.D., is associate professor of marketing and international business at the University of Akron; and, a member of the core faculty at the International School of Management in Paris, France.

He is a bestselling business author/editor, whose 23 books include, most recently, American Shale Energy and the Global Economy: Business and Geopolitical Implications of the Fracking Revolution, The Customer Trap: How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake in Business, Global Supply Chain Security, The Final Journey of the Saturn V, and Soft Landing: Airline Industry Strategy, Service and Safety.

His book The Distribution Trap was awarded the Berry-American Marketing Association Prize for the Best Marketing Book of 2010. Another work, Direct Marketing in Action, was a finalist for the same award in 2008.

Andrew is founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Transportation Security and a regularly featured analyst for media outlets around the world.

He has traveled to and conducted business in 120 countries on all seven continents.