GNP
Encyclopedia
Gross National Product (GNP) is the market value of all products and services produced in one year by labor and property supplied by the residents of a country. Unlike Gross Domestic Product
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....

 (GDP), which defines production based on the geographical location of production, GNP allocates production based on ownership.

GNP does not distinguish between qualitative improvements in the state of the technical arts (e.g., increasing computer processing speeds), and quantitative increases in goods (e.g., number of computers produced), and considers both to be forms of "economic growth".

GNP vs. GDP

Gross National Product (GNP) is often contrasted with Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While GNP measures the output generated by a country's enterprises (whether physically located domestically or abroad) GDP measures the total output produced within a country's borders - whether produced by that country's own firms or not.

When a country's capital or labour resources are employed outside its borders, or when a foreign firm is operating in its territory, GDP and GNP can produce different measures of total output. In 2009 for instance, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 estimated its GDP at $14.119 trillion, and its GNP at $14.265 trillion.

Use

The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 used GNP as its primary measure of total economic activity before 1991, when it began to use GDP. In making the switch, the Bureau of Economic Analysis
Bureau of Economic Analysis
The Bureau of Economic Analysis is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides important economic statistics including the gross domestic product of the United States. Its stated mission is to "promote a better understanding of the U.S...

 (BEA) noted both that GDP provided an easier comparison of other measures of economic activity in the United States and that "virtually all other countries have already adopted GDP as their primary measure of production."

List of countries by GNP(GNI) (nominal, Atlas method) (millions of US$) (Top 10)

Rank 2010 2009 2008
1 14,600,828 14,223,686 14,506,142
2 5,700,018 4,857,623 4,853,005
3 5,369,116 4,785,450 4,042,883
4 3,537,180 3,473,814 3,504,510
5 2,749,821 2,750,418 2,799,960
6 2,399,292 2,538,578 2,700,770
7 2,125,845 2,114,668 2,115,482
8 1,830,392 1,563,126 1,449,186
9 1,566,636 1,472,046 1,446,669
10 1,462,894 1,405,064 1,433,699

Sources