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What nation increased its total economic consumption most from 1970 to 2010? If you’ve been reading too much about a US “great stagnation” in that period, the answer might surprise you — the US wins by a long shot. The top thirty gains:
United States 583, Japan 183, China 103, United Kingdom 73, Germany 63, France 53, India 47, Brazil 47, Italy 39, Canada 37, Mexico 37, Spain 28, Indonesia 14, Netherlands 11, Greece 9, South Africa 8, Thailand 8, Switzerland 8, Belgium 8, Austria 7, Colombia 7, Sweden 7, Philippines 7, Norway 7, Malaysia 7, Portugal 6, Chile 6, Finland 5, Ireland 5, Denmark 4. (source)
Units are tens of billions of dollars per year. All of Western Europe adds up to 285. Since total world change was ~1460, the US had ~40% of all consumption growth.
US Grows Most ’70-’10
Using the table one can compute the arguably more useful relative change. This gives the following ranking. China is unsurprisingly on top.
20091970-2009 China$812 $737 982.7%Indonesia$625 $502 408.1%Tunisia$1,830 $1,379 305.8%Malaysia$2,626 $1,962 295.5%Thailand$1,391 $1,008 263.2%Dominican Republic$3,268 $2,282 231.4%Lesotho$642 $436 211.7%India$459 $292 174.9%Greece$10,947 $6,906 170.9%Malta$7,213 $4,547 170.6%Ireland$13,580 $8,475 166.0%Portugal$7,891 $4,901 163.9%Brazil$2,984 $1,816 155.5%Norway$20,096 $12,211 154.9%Chile$4,324 $2,622 154.1%United Kingdom$18,354 $11,027 150.5%Finland$14,286 $8,317 139.3%Japan$22,173 $12,771 135.8%Luxembourg$20,238 $11,446 130.2%United States$26,783 $14,906 125.5%Austria$14,112 $7,828 124.6%Iceland$17,291 $9,475 121.2%Spain$9,190 $4,959 117.2%Canada$15,658 $8,268 111.9%Belgium$12,668 $6,621 109.5%Morocco$1,056 $551 109.1%Germany$14,103 $7,332 108.3%France$13,717 $7,100 107.3%Italy$11,326 $5,862 107.3%Mexico$4,260 $1,997 88.2%Costa Rica$3,268 $1,497 84.5%Colombia$2,066 $902 77.5%Uruguay$6,180 $2,690 77.1%Philippines$942 $407 76.1%Netherlands$12,341 $5,317 75.7%Paraguay$1,090 $463 73.8%Ecuador$1,133 $472 71.4%Sweden$15,391 $6,149 66.5%Denmark$15,636 $6,232 66.3%El Salvador$2,315 $921 66.1%Kenya$350 $137 64.3%Honduras$1,005 $361 56.1%South Africa$2,382 $844 54.9%New Zealand$9,250 $3,224 53.5%Switzerland$21,905 $7,413 51.2%Guatemala$1,587 $525 49.4%Algeria$785 $237 43.2%Gabon$1,533 $314 25.8%Senegal$442 $85 23.8%Bolivia$871 $159 22.3%Peru$2,019 $327 19.3%Bangladesh$374 ($52)-12.2%Nicaragua$808 ($222)-21.6%Madagascar$192 ($222)-53.6%
To be fair, the increase in consumption consists primarily of products made overseas and bought on credit.
Source: I made it up, but doesn't seem too far-fetched and shows how much the one provided statistic about consumption needs some context to have any meaning.