Data on the of any country is largely an illusion. In order to see the real situation, we must look at least two things: the gross domestic product and the purchasing power parity. The purchasing power parity gives an opportunity to estimate the real volume of the economy without reference to the dollar exchange rate, as well as the real standard of living in the country. A knowledge of the structure of the country's gross domestic product allows us to distinguish the volume of the real sector, i.e.the actual product produced in various industries: mining and processing. So, let's compare the GDP of Russia, the US and China, and make some unexpected conclusions. Gross domestic product by purchasing power parity in billions of dollars (IMF data for 2016) PRC- 21,286 US- 18,624 Russia- 3,862. US GDP structure. Industrial production - 15%, agriculture and fishing - 1%, construction - 3%. Total real sector - 19%. The rest - trade and all sorts of services: from manicure to transportation and financial. China. Industrial production - 40%, agriculture - 10%, construction - 7%.The share of the real sector is 57%. It turns out that China's size of the real sector of the economy is more than three times the American one. Russia. Industrial production - 30.5%, agriculture and fishing - 4.2%, construction - 7.4%. Total - 42.1% So, we will calculate. US GDP is 4.8 times more than ours, and the share of real output in Russia's GDP is 2.2 times higher than in US GDP. This means that real industrial production in the US is more than ours at 4.8 / 2.2 = 2.18 times.And if we take into account the shadow sector, which is much larger in Russia than in the US, the gap will become even less noticeable. A similar calculation for China shows that the volume of the product produced there is higher than we have 7.44 times. In terms of per capita we come to interesting and unexpected conclusions. The US population is 2.2 times more than ours, and the population of China is 9.38 times. This means that the volume of real industrial production in Russia and the US per capita is roughly the same.The statement about much more effective production in the US turns out to be a myth. Similarly, in terms of per capita, we produce an industrial product 1.26 times more than in China. So to say that all Russians live below the poverty line is not true in principle. In Russia, a completely different way of life. We used to be content with the small, we rely only on ourselves. In case of any threat, the Russians are ready to "tighten their belts" and defend their country. So the more you build your forces on our borders, the more threatened Russia will accumulate for you.
https://www.quora.com/How-is-it-possible-that-Russia-per-capita-GDP-is-so-low-compared-to-Western-Europe-I-have-been-to-Moscow-for-three-days-and-it-looked-a-quite-wealthy-place-Is-the-rest-of-Russia-that-much-poorer
