Gross domestic Product (GDP)

The big headline number: how much stuff the economy produces in a year.

The GDP of a country is a measure of the total value of goods and services that are produced within that country during a specified time period, such as a year.

It does not include:

• Whether or not people are thriving
• The value of voluntary work
• The care of children, people with disabilities, and the elderly
• Harms to the environment

GDP also gives no idea of the distribution of income and wealth.

Example:
A country can have rising GDP while kids go hungry and rivers get polluted. GDP goes up… wellbeing goes down.

Visual idea:
A bar chart labelled GDP beside a wellbeing meter showing they’re not the same thing.