Countries Included: All world countries, economic regions, geographical regions
Years Covered: From 1993 to 2008
Indicators: Over 50 indicators from our database of 1,000 are currently display by Econ Stats
Data Sources: IMF, World Bank, UN, OECD, CIA World Factbook, Internet World Statistics, The Heritage Foundation and Transparency International
Last Updated: 1st August 2011
The Economic Geography school of thought believes that a country's economic prosperity is fundamentally defined by its geography. In this section we examine whether the country is easy to navigate by rivers (which is the cheapest form of transportation) or is mountainous and requires time and money to be spent on building roads and rivers. Access to the sea is a vital requirement for efficient international trade relations. According to this analysis, it is natural that the United States should be the world's dominant economy, since it has vast arable land connected by the world's most extensive river networks, and bordered by the world's two major oceans. This section should be read in conjunction with the Natural Resources section.