RICHEST AND POOREST COUNTRIES IN ASIA
As of 2025, there are more than 4.5 billion people in Asia. China and India alone have a population of about 2.8 billion. And globally, there are more than 8 billion people. Asia is made up of 48 states, which occupy about 30% of the Earth's total land area. Over the past half-century, many Asian countries have made unprecedented economic progress, making Asia today responsible for 30% of world income, 40% of production, and more than one-third of trade.
Asia is a very heterogeneous part of the world, with states that vary widely in climate, population, quality of life, level of economic development and many other indicators. While Qatar and the UAE are on the list of the richest countries in the world, Afghanistan and Yemen are on the opposite side and along with some African regions are considered the poorest states of the planet.
Asia is home to a number of large economies, including China, Japan, South Korea, India and Turkey, as well as smaller, wealthy countries with vast reserves of natural resources (mostly oil and gas), such as Qatar, Brunei, UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. Given the level of GDP per capita (purchasing power parity – PPP) according to the official data of the International Monetary Fund, let's identify the richest and poorest countries in Asia in 2025.
| № | COUNTRY | GDP PER CAPITA ($) |
| 1. | Singapore | 148,186 |
| 2. | Qatar | 115,075 |
| 3. | Brunei | 91,046 |
| 4. | United Arab Emirates | 77,251 |
| 5. | Bahrain | 65,345 |
| 6. | Saudi Arabia | 63,118 |
| 7. | South Korea | 62,960 |
| 8. | Israel | 54,446 |
| 9. | Japan | 53,059 |
| 10. | Kuwait | 49,736 |
Note. The ranking of the richest and poorest countries in Asia includes only independent (sovereign) states with open economies. For example, Macau, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as Palestine and North Korea are not included. In addition, states for which there is no up-to-date data on GDP levels are not included. In particular, this applies to Afghanistan and Syria.
| № | COUNTRY | GDP PER CAPITA ($) |
| 1. | Yemen | 1,996 |
| 2. | East Timor | 4,697 |
| 3. | Myanmar | 5 206 |
| 4. | Nepal | 5,348 |
| 5. | Tajikistan | 5,533 |
| 6. | Pakistan | 6,715 |
| 7. | Kyrgyzstan | 7,773 |
| 8. | Cambodia | 8,137 |
| 9. | Laos | 9,727 |
| 10. | Bangladesh | 9,840 |
Experts estimate that by about 2050, Asia will account for more than half of the world's income, and its economic and political importance in the world will reach never-before-seen proportions.
RELATED ARTICLES:
