The Changing Wealth of Nations 2021 provides an updated database and rich analysis of the world’s wealth accounts spanning 146 countries, annually from 1995 to 2018. It contains the widest set of assets covered so far, including human capital broken down by gender, as well as many different forms of natural capital, spanning minerals, fossil fuels, forests, mangroves, marine fisheries and more. The Changing Wealth of Nations 2021: Managing Assets for the Future

This edition of The Changing Wealth of Nations is the fourth World Bank report on global wealth accounting. It breaks new ground by expanding coverage and measures of capital assets, including natural capital and also, for the first time:

Applying purchasing power parity (PPP) prices to wealth

Applying decomposition analysis to understand the drivers of change in wealth

Introducing blue natural capital to the core accounts, such as marine fisheries and mangroves

The Changing Wealth of Nations 2021 moves beyond comprehensive wealth accounting, to now provide policy insights to guide sustainable development:

New analysis on the impacts of climate change

New analysis on how to manage assets under conditions of risk and uncertainty,

New estimate of how climate policies could affect the value of assets under alternative future scenarios about the low-carbon transition; and

We examine the impact on human capital of two important phenomena: the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of air pollution, as well as the distorting impact of nonrenewable wealth on human capital.
It is now clear that a narrow focus on the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) is insufficient to achieve humanity’s aspirations for sustainable prosperity. Wellfunctioning ecosystems and educated populations are requisites for sustainable wellbeing. These and other too-often-neglected ingredients of national wealth must be addressed if the development path is to be sustainable.

The Changing Wealth of Nations 2021: Managing Assets for the Future provides the most comprehensive accounting of the wealth of nations, an in-depth analysis of the evolution of wealth, and pathways to build wealth for the future. This report—and the accompanying global database—firmly establishes comprehensive wealth as a measure of sustainability and a key component of country analytics. It expands the coverage of wealth accounts and improves our understanding of the quality of all assets, notably, natural capital. Wealth—the stock of produced, natural, and human capital—is measured as the sum of assets that yield a stream of benefits over time.

Changes in the wealth of nations matter because they reflect the change in countries’ assets that underpin future income. Countries regularly track GDP as an indicator of their economic progress, but not wealth, and national wealth has a more direct and long-term impact on people’s lives. This report provides a new set of tools and analysis to help policy makers navigate risks and to guide collective action. Wealth accounts can be applied in macroeconomic analysis to areas of major policy concern such as climate change and natural resource management. This report can be used to look beyond GDP, to gauge nations’ economic well-being, and to promote sustainable prosperity.