Gross national income

The Gross national income (GNI) is the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country, consisting of gross domestic product (GDP) plus factor incomes earned by foreign residents, minus income earned in the domestic economic by nonresidents (Todaro & Smith, 2011, p.44).

The GNI is similar to the gross national product (GNP), except that in measuring the GNP one does not deduct the indirect business taxes.

GNI versus GDP

For example, the profits of a US-owned company operating in the UK will only count towards US GNI and UK GDP. If a country becomes heavily indebted, and pays large amounts of interest to service this debt, this will be reflected in a decreased GNI but not a decreased GDP. If a country sells off its resources to entities outside their country this will also be reflected over time in decreased GNI, but not decreased GDP. Therefore, the GDP appears more attractive for countries with increasing national debt and decreasing assets.

GNP is a concept that goes hand in hand with GNI, GDP, and NNI. In contrast to the GNI, the GNP does not account for the balance of cross-country income, such as interest and dividends. In contrast to the GDP, the GNP account for the values of products and services based on citizenship of the owners rather than the territory of the activity

How to Calculate the GNI

As GNI is an add up of Net Income from abroad and the GDP, one can calculate the GNI by the following formula.

$GNI=GDP+(FL-DL)+NCI=C+I+G+(X-M)+(FL-DL)+NCI$

Where FL and DL are respectively the foreign and domestic income from labor, and NCI the net capital inflow. For example, if a country A's nominal GDP is $20,000, the domestic income from labor $3,000 and the foreign income from labor $5,000, and the country received a $10,000 donation from another country's charity organization, the GNI of country A would be $32,000.

List of countries by GNI (nominal, Atlas method, millions of US$, top 10)

Rank	2012		2010		2009		2008
1	United States	15,734,567	United States	14,600,828	United States	14,223,686	United States	14,506,142
2	China	7,748,903	China	5,700,018	China	4,857,623	Japan	4,853,005
3	Japan	6,105,798	Japan	5,369,116	Japan	4,785,450	China	4,042,883
4	Germany	3,603,895	Germany	3,537,180	Germany	3,473,814	Germany	3,504,510
5	France	2,742,891	France	2,749,821	France	2,750,418	United Kingdom	2,799,960
6	United Kingdom	2,418,464	United Kingdom	2,399,292	United Kingdom	2,538,578	France	2,700,770
7	Brazil	2,311,147	Italy	2,125,845	Italy	2,114,668	Italy	2,115,482
8	Italy	2,061,253	Brazil	1,830,392	Brazil	1,563,126	Spain	1,449,186
9	India	1,890,363	India	1,566,636	Spain	1,472,046	Canada	1,446,669
10	Russia	1,822,654	Spain	1,462,894	India	1,405,064	Brazil	1,433,699

See also

• Net national income
• Measures of national income and output
• Gross national income in the European Union
• List of countries by GNI per capita
• National average salary