New figures released today from the Scottish Government show that Scotland would be ranked as the 14th wealthiest nation per head within the OECD, the grouping of the world’s richest countries.
The updated research shows that – including North Sea output – Scotland’s GDP per capita in 2012 was 11% above that of the UK – which is ranked 18th out of the 34 OECD countries. (See chart, below)
Both Scotland and the UK maintain their rankings compared to updated international comparisons for 2011.
The new research complements recent analysis by the Financial Times which ranked Scotland as the 19th wealthiest nation in the world, compared to the UK in 23rd place, and comes after ratings agency Standard and Poor’s confirmed an independent Scotland would qualify for its “highest economic assessment”.
Finance Secretary John Swinney, MSP, commented: “There is no doubt that Scotland can more than afford to be a successful independent nation. With our vast natural resources, skilled work force and broad-based industrial strengths, Scotland performs strongly against international competitors.
“Scotland has five of the world’s top 200 universities, a booming food and drink industry worth over £13bn a year, a huge market for tourism, 25% of Europe’s offshore wind and tidal energy and growing potential in areas like life science, low carbon manufacturing and in our rural and island economies.”
“This analysis shows that an independent Scotland would be the 14th wealthiest nation per head within the OECD compared to that of the UK which is ranked 18th and with the powers of independence we would be able to harness that wealth for the benefit of people in Scotland.
For more information:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/
Table 1: Estimate of Scotland’s GDP per Capita Ranking against OECD countries in 2012 with the inclusion of an illustrative geographic share of North Sea output Rank Country 2012 GDP per head ($) 1 Luxembourg $89,417 2 Norway $66,135 3 Switzerland $53,641 4 United States $51,689 5 Australia $44,407 6 Austria $44,141 7 Ireland $43,803 8 Netherlands $43,348 9 Sweden $42,874 10 Denmark $42,787 11 Canada $42,114 12 Germany $41,923 13 Belgium $40,838 14 Scotland (Onshore + geog oil) $39,642 15 Finland $39,160 16 Iceland $39,097 17 France $36,933 18 United Kingdom $35,671 19 Japan $35,482 20 Italy $34,143 21 New Zealand $32,847 22 Spain $32,551 23 Israel $31,364 24 Korea $30,011 25 Slovenia $28,482 26 Czech Republic $27,522 27 Slovak Republic $25,848 28 Portugal $25,802 29 Greece $25,586 30 Estonia $24,260 31 Poland $22,783 32 Hungary $22,635 33 Chile $21,486 34 Turkey $18,315 35 Mexico $17,019
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