Our World in Data, GDP Per Capita, 1870 to 1900

This is a snapshot of an interactive slope graph published by Our World in Data and based on data from the Maddison Project Database 2023 led by Bolt and van Zanden. It visualizes the change in the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, or per person, in the United States from 1870 to 1900. The data is adjusted for inflation and living conditions. Viewers can modify the years to expand the range over a much longer period of time as well as change the display to either a line or a bar graph. Across the thirty years shown in this segment of the graph, the GDP per capita nearly doubled: growing from $4,800 to $8,040. Since the 1820s, the world, including the United States, had been experiencing spectacular economic growth (van Zanden et al. 2014). By expanding the timeline on the interactive graph, the viewer is able to see that this growth continued throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century as the U.S. economy shifted from primarily agrarian to industrial. This graph demonstrates the growth in GDP per capita during the process of industrialization and urbanization throughout the late 1800s.