gross national income

gross national income, the sum of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) plus net income (positive or negative) from abroad. It represents the value produced by a country’s economy in a given year, regardless of whether the source of the value created is domestic production or receipts from overseas.

A country’s GNI will differ significantly from its GDP if the country has large income receipts or outlays from abroad. Those income items may include profits, employee compensation, property income, or taxes. For example, in a country in which many foreign businesses operate, GNI is much smaller than GDP, because the foreign businesses’ profits that are repatriated to the country of origin are counted against the country’s GNI but not against its GDP. GNI, therefore, is a better measure of economic well-being than GDP for countries that have large foreign receivables or outlays.

Before the creation of the Human Development Index (HDI), a country’s level of development was typically measured using economic statistics, particularly GNI. The United Nations, however, believed that economic measures alone were inadequate for assessing development because they did not always reflect the quality of life of a country’s average citizens. It thereby introduced the HDI in 1990 to take other factors into account and provide a more well-rounded evaluation of human development.