Speed Read

The Commonwealth of Nations is growing rapidly in comparison to the ailing Eurozone

Measured by share of world GDP, the Commonwealth overtook the (1973) European Union in 2004

By the same measure, the Commonwealth is slightly larger than the current Eurozone

In 2016, the Commonwealth accounted for 3.9% more than the Eurozone in terms of world GDP share







Real GDP Growth 1970 – 2016 (year on year % change)







Economic growth in the Commonwealth has accelerated over the post 1973 period in sharp contrast to the EU, where the growth rate has been falling gently from an average of 3.6% in the 1970’s to only 1.7% in the past five years.



Looking at the Eurozone, EU, and Commonwealth from a market share of world GDP viewpoint, a similar pattern is evident. The chartsbelow show the Eurozone and EU compared with Commonwealth share of world real GDP.









Finally, the chart below shows estimated population trends for the Eurozone compared with the Commonwealth for the 2016-2050 period. As can be seen, population growth in the Commonwealth alone is expected to rise by over 30% for this period, whereas the Eurozone population is expected to fall by 1.9%.





The Eurozone is defined as full members in 2016: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, and Spain..

The EU is defined as full members of the EU in 1973: Belgium, Denmark France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, and Netherlands (UK omitted).

The Commonwealth is defined in both charts as all members minus the UK. Due to difficulty