Gross national product (GNP) per capita is the dollar value of a country’s final output of goods and services in a year, divided by its population. It reflects the average income of a country’s citizens. Countries with a GNP per capita in 1998 of $9,361 or more are described as high income, between $761 and $9,360 as middle income and $760 or less as low income.
What GNP per capita shows
GNP per capita shows what part of a country’s GNP each person would have if this GNP were divided equally. Knowing a country’s GNP per capita is a good first step toward understanding the country’s economic strengths and needs, as well as the general standard of living enjoyed by the average citizen. A country’s GNP per capita tends to be closely linked with other indicators that measure the social, economic, and environmental well-being of the country and its people. For example, generally people living in countries with higher GNP per capita tend to have longer life expectancies, higher literacy rates, better access to safe water, and lower infant mortality rates.
What GNP per capita does not show
GNP per capita helps measure the material output of a country, but it does not show what kinds of goods and services the country produces, whether all people share equally in the wealth of a country, or whether these people lead fulfilling lives.
Despite large differences in the GNP per capita of high-, middle-, and low-income countries, the trend across all countries is for the richest 20 percent of the population to earn incomes that are many times higher than the poorest 20 percent. To get a clearer picture of the standard of living in a country, you must go beyond GNP per capita to see how equitably income is distributed among all the people.
Study this map (http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/modules/economic/gnp/map1.html) which shows the global distribution of GNP. You may also like to complete the activities or ask your students to complete them.
The following Global Education site has a more detailed activity on GNP and is a lesson about global income and income distribution
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/archives/secondary/casestud/economics/1/glob-inc.html