Singapore

Singapore: strong, sustained growth, 1980–2025

A small, trade-dependent city-state with almost no natural resources, Singapore built one of the world's richest economies through open trade, financial-services development, and consistently pragmatic governance since independence in 1965. Between 1980 and 2025, Singapore's GDP per capita grew from $4,928 to $98,814 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 6.9% — strong, sustained growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 6.0% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 4.0 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 1.5% to 0.0% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 59.9% to 71.6% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 72.2 to 83.3 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 93.3% to 97.3%, while the urban population share grew from 100.0% to 100.0%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions rose from 6.31 to 9.75 tonnes CO2e per person.