Population and GDP are two of the most interesting and important numbers to look at. One's importance as a nation is generally related to how much money you make (GDP) or how many people you have (population). (Of course Israel and Iraq doing follow this logic.)
As an American, it is interesting to consider the populations of those other 14 countries and how out of balance GDP and population are.
(Note: These graphs are from a really excellent piece of visualization software called Tableau.)
Chart 1
The first chart has three panes which list the 15 largest economies in the world by GDP. The first pane is GDP. The second pane is population (a very different list). The third pane is GDP divided by population (also called per capita). Note some of the huge differences.
(This is the $500B club because these are the only countries with an official economy larger than $500B.)
Chart 2
The second graph is a different way to look at the data. The Y-axis is GDP and the X-axis is Population. Look at the huge variation from the USA at the economic extreme to China and Inda and the population extreme. Our economy sets us apart from everyone else while China and India's population set them apart. The "everyone else" is jumbled up around the origin.
Chart 3
Another look at the data. The X-axis is still the population but the y-Axis is now GDP per capita. Countries are a little more spread out this time, with the Western countries having a decent wage and China/India still dirt poor.
