Venezuela

Venezuela: sluggish, near-stagnant growth, 1980–2024

Holding the world's largest proven oil reserves, Venezuela financed expansive state spending through the 2000s oil boom, then suffered one of the deepest peacetime economic collapses on record after 2014 as oil prices and output fell, hyperinflation set in, and millions emigrated; official data reporting largely stopped along the way. Between 1980 and 2024, Venezuela's GDP per capita grew from $3,874 to $4,218 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 0.2% — sluggish, near-stagnant growth. Annual GDP growth averaged -0.7% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 9.8 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 5.3% to 5.0% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 53.9% to 38.6% of GDP, a comparatively unusual pattern for this period. On human development, life expectancy rose from 68.2 to 72.7 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 19.0% to 78.3%, while the urban population share grew from 79.2% to 89.3%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 5.94 to 3.39 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 55.6 to 44.7; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 11.3% to 9.7%.