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China vs. India

How China and India compare on income per person, population, life expectancy, internet use, electricity, unemployment, inflation, carbon emissions, health spending and college enrollment, each next to the world figure and linked to its chart, where you'll find its source, its date and every country's numbers.

The biggest differences

  • Inflation is 4.8 percentage points higher in India (5%) than in China (0.2%).
  • Health spending per person is 9 times as high in China ($763) as in India ($85.00).
  • GDP per person is 5.1 times as high in China ($13,293) as in India ($2,592).

The two are about the same on the population, the share of people with electricity, and the unemployment rate.

Side by side

Figures are from the World Bank's World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), for the newest year most countries have reported; many are estimates, and they are revised as new data comes in. GDP per person is in US dollars at each year's exchange rates, not adjusted for differences in prices, and so is health spending. Two figures are called about the same when GDP, population, emissions or health spending differ by less than 5%, life expectancy by less than a year, unemployment or inflation by less than 1 percentage point, or another share by less than 2 percentage points.

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