2,000 Years of Economic History in One Chart
The fascinating graph above represents 2,000 years of economic history starting in 1 AD. It was produced by Michael Cembalest, head of investment strategy at JP Morgan.
The ebb and flow of economic dominance is interesting. India (orange) and China (red) dominated for roughly 1800 years. However, they were pushed aside by growth in the United States (green), Western Europe (shades of blue), and Japan (yellow) which peaked by 1950. Since then China has surged back toward a larger role.
The Economist published a different rendition that gives the time sampling on the x-axis a more rigorous treatment: