Over the ten years to 2024, a total of 80 countries and regions recorded per-capita GDP growth of less than half their rate in the preceding decade, up from 68 as of 2014.

The population in those places stood at roughly 1.1 billion in 2014, about one person in six worldwide. By 2024 it had reached 3.3 billion, or two in five. More than 730 million of them live where real per-capita GDP is actually lower than a decade earlier.

What stands out is how many large, populous economies have joined the list. China, Russia, Germany and Brazil are among them, according to an analysis by The Economist.

A Question of Expectations, Not Statistics

Halved per-capita growth does not mean living standards are falling. It means they are improving more slowly. But what people register is usually the direction and pace of change rather than the absolute level.

The assumption that the next generation will live better than the last underpinned political stability in many societies for decades after the war. When it weakens, conflict over distribution grows and distrust of the established order follows.

Recent European elections in which mainstream parties lost ground to forces campaigning on housing and living costs can be read in the same frame. A slowdown in the indicators translates fairly directly into a shift in the political map.

Where East Asia Sits

South Korea's per-capita GDP has continued to rise, but noticeably more slowly than before. In Taiwan the gap between aggregate growth driven by semiconductors and household experience is frequently noted. China has passed its double-digit phase and entered a period of structural transition.

Many readers of this paper arrange family and assets across borders. When growth turns in one place, the direction of remittances, the choice of where to study and where to retire all move with it. That is the channel by which a global average reaches a single household's decision.