World economy's centre has moved 1,900 km east since 2000

Claim types Fact · Interpretation

World Bank, World Development Indicators: GDP, PPP (current international $), NY.GDP.MKTP.PP.CD, last updated 8 Oct 2026, read from the World Bank API via the progrss vault (GUIDELINES §4.11); China, the US, India and Japan for 2000 and 2024 re-read on the World Bank API and matched exactly. Country positions: each country's capital, latitude and longitude as published in the World Bank country API (api.worldbank.org/v2/country). Method (progrss calculation, Interpretation): each year, every country's capital is weighted by its GDP at purchasing power; the weighted average is taken through the Earth in three dimensions and lifted back to the surface. Because the world's economies sit all around the globe, that midpoint lands far north. One fixed set of 187 countries with a value in every year 2000–2024 (about all of world output); left out for a missing year or position: Curaçao, Cayman Islands, Djibouti, Faroe Islands, Palestine, Sint Maarten, Turks and Caicos, Kosovo; Taiwan is not in WDI. 2025 is left out (6 of the 187 not yet reported). The centre moved 1,922 km, from 65.94°N 13.43°E (northern Norway) in 2000 to 62.17°N 52.7°E (Komi, northern Russia) in 2024. Checks: dropping any one big economy keeps the move eastward, from 1,173 km without China to 2,319 km without Japan; placing the US, China, India, Brazil, Russia, Canada and Australia at rough economic centres instead of capitals gives 2,180 km. Shares are of the 187-country total at purchasing power (progrss calculation): China 7.7% (2000) and 19.4% (2024); United States 21.0% and 14.9%; India 4.4% and 7.9%. Reference dots are capitals from the same World Bank country API. Licence: World Bank data, CC BY 4.0. The big number is the great-circle distance from the 2000 midpoint in each year (progrss calculation).