Australia

Australia: strong, sustained growth, 1980–2025

A resource-export economy tightly linked to Asian demand (especially China), Australia avoided a technical recession for nearly three decades after the early 1990s, a rare streak among advanced economies. Between 1980 and 2025, Australia's GDP per capita grew from $10,223 to $65,130 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 4.2% — strong, sustained growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 3.0% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 1.5 points, reflecting relatively stable macroeconomic conditions. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 4.2% to 2.3% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 59.5% to 67.5% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 74.3 to 83.1 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 119.7% to 108.4%, while the urban population share grew from 85.8% to 87.7%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 15.13 to 14.10 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) widened from 31.3 to 33.8; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 1.1% to 0.9%.