Hasn't this already happend?

China is second in the World to the US when it comes to GDP PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) which equalizes the purchasing power of different currencies in their home countries for a given basket of goods. But this article relates to the Nominal GDP.

World GDP as a percentage (2005 tp 2040)
-------------------------
Orient 19% (8% to 25%)
Africa 17% (5% to 25%)
Europe 16% (5% to 25%)
Saarc 14% (5% to 20%)
English America 10% (4% to 25%)
Latin America 10% (3% to 20%)
Asean 8% (3% to 15%)
Middle East 6% (3% to 15%)
Other -

Other includes Central Asia, Oceania and Antartica.

World Population
----------------
Orient 1500 million
Saarc 1500
Africa 900
Europe 800
Asean 600
Latin America 500
English America 400
Middle East 400
Other 50
-----------------
World 6650 million

World Religion/ Philosophy
--------------------------
Christianity 1500 million
Islam 1000
Hinduism 1000
Buddhism 1000
Taoism 1000
Animism 1000
Other 150
------------------------
World 6650 million

I am a follwer of Buddist Hinduism.

I don't think this will happen. Of course today's most powerful countries, especially those on the upper part of the earth, won't let this happen. They will do everything to stint China's growth. And imagine how scary it is if China's economy becomes the world's largest. I really believe that it should NEVER ever happen.

World GDP over the last 2000 years. I think Latin America will be ok.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_by_past_GDP_%28PPP%29

I think you will like this map, I made it personally based on information on this site and the internet in general.

http://img479.imageshack.us/img479/5752/economicgroupsri3.png

Looks pretty accurate

I disagree. China is unlikely ever to overtake the USA in the 21st century. Also, Japan would probably still remain the 2nd largest economy in the world until circa 2025. Chinese businesses are still dependent on foreign customers and tools. So they do not have experience in survivng the rigour of free competition.

This will happen way before 2040, because the American economy is going down faster than ever. The rest of the world is pumping money out of the US at a high rate. If this continues, the US will face unpayable debt and high inflation. What I miss in the news is: what wil happen with the euro/dollar rate en yen/dollar rate? This will also affect the US economy.

I am a chinese and I am satisfied with china economy growth. 2040, I don't care about who's the big brother. but I am sure at that time china will be much stronger. that guy, u need not scary about china become bigger. you see, 10 yrs ago, I thought clothes made in hongkong are famous brand, but now, I prefer to wear hugoboss green.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3852891107486285806&q=municator

Alright, I'm gonna be honest. This will NEVER happen. China is eventually going to have a point where it's communism fails and there will be such a large mix-up that their economy will flop for a while. By the time this has all happened it will be 2050-2070. Then, after becoming a full democracy they will have to continue their growth and it will much too hard to catch up with the United States. The recession in the US now can't be that long because people are going to start to change things in the US, and FAST. I totally agree with Mike. This is also a very far left and biased site and most of the things on here are just educated guesses. The world never turns out how people think it will. In the forties people thought we would be in space shuttles and have space homes and robot maids, but that hasn't happened quite yet, has it?

Exchange rate effects the Volume of trade. See Illustration in the link.

http://img361.imageshack.us/my.php?image=volumeoftradeqy5.jpg

I enjoy reading these predictions but all these things are so complex and so many things aren't taken into account I will list a few for you all to think about.

- Where you are in the world (trade routes) this as been USA main advantage over the last 50 year it's has easy trade access to Europe, south America Africa and Asia. China/India has no easy route to Europe + east coast of the America

- How effectively will china turn it's economy around from being based on cheap labor to whatever it will become I don't know but I do know that china is reaching the limits of it's growth from cheap labor allow and as other cheap labor markets open up how does china compete with them metal the town company as already moved all production from china to Vietnam to reduce labor cost. India doesn’t have this problem as there economy is based manly on heavy industry and service sector.

-Peak oil "some people say we are at it now but I think we are still a little way off" once the transportation of products becomes higher it will be cheaper to produce locally with higher wage cost. (The country that changes to a green renewable energy economy first and the most effectively will most likely be the next economic power in the world)

- The control of natural resources I once read a topic explaining how the USA population was 3% of the world but they controlled 25% of the would resources.

- Over population how do you go about feeding such a fast growing population with less and less land to grow food on "problem faced by India + China but not the USA"

- As someone already said political unrest as the population in china become more educated and richer will they begin to demand more freedom and stand up against corruption.

- Turnover is vanity China/India may have to produce goods at lower and lower margin even at a lose with substeadies they already have to do this with fuel to be able to keep growing “example of this is the car maker GM they are the biggest car company in the world but are loosening massive amounts of money so who would by shares in them?”

The person who can tell you which country can overcome these problems will have a better prediction than someone that just carry’s forward current growth rates and says whichever country has the largest population will be the most powerful.

@Thomas

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

all we need to do is to stop are economy from "sucking" by each doing the little things that we can to make a big impact

P.s.
who cares about china

World Economy

http://www.topix.com/forum/topstories/TUE5Q01LBHILAC8LJ

I, myself, find it to be a very odd coincidence that analyst’s such as Fogel state that China started to gain economic strength in 2000. Now wait a minute… who was elected as the new President of the United States in the year 2000?

Pontus Edenberg,
When was this research carried out (how current are the figures it is based on)?

I don't agree with you Nickolas Post, i think that China NEEDS communism especially with its population.

China probably will be the economic superpower, but the economy is un-predictable. If China does become economic superpower i worry what will during this time.

"US is still by far the nation with the biggest GDP per capita with US$73,830, followed by Japan, United Kingdom and France, among the largest economies in the world."

Do you know European Union?

Don´t you remember Germany, the first european economy and fourth world economy on 2009?

Is world war two over for you?

Still dreaming?

America's loss is worlds benefit. china, india, russia, brazil will grow rapidly. but one thing is sure that europe and usa will somehow control about china's growth( i dont know how but they will).otherwise china will be problem for everyone. long back someone says about" its sleeping dragon let it sleep, if this wake up rest everyone will sleep"

This article is flawed, i think it got it's date wrong, 2040? make it as early as 2017, by 2040 they will have trippled USA GDP, and at this rate, if you make the calculations that USA economy continues to decline at a rate of -2% over the next 5 years, and China's economy given a modest figure of a 9-10% growth over the next 5 years, by that calculations in 2015 China's GDP will have surpassed the USA.

I think this article is way off! I think it could happen by 2025 or 2030 at the latest. The US is not going to grow at pre2007 levels for a very long time if ever. The US is in the process of down-sizing everything and my have a stagnant economy for years, while China is still growing at almost a double-digit rate.
2040:
#1 - China
#2 - Japan
#3 - USA
#4 - India

Interesting...

Americans here are very "I reckon, it will never happen "

Arabs on here "America is collapsing fast, I HATE AMERICA"

Chinese are "whatever"

I think there's more important things to worry about like lunch tomorrow.

america will remain super power and world's largest economy in 2040 / 2050 /2100 and will go on like this only.America is in temperary recession situation and its innovation in future will always save her

Here i can see Americans are scared.......!!!!!!

I am sure there are people in India, China, America, Africa that can do similar work for all other nations.

"World GDP as a percentage (2005 tp 2040)
-------------------------
Orient 19% (8% to 25%)"

Orient ?

I love it when I see that people still throw these terms around. It's about as indiscript as using something like "White Nations" and of course - with the latitude you give to encompass "Oriental nations" that would, of course, include most of the Eurasian continent, Australia, and both Americas.

Oriental' ? Come on.

So far a multipolar world will give more stability to the world than a world dominate by a country who become unfriendly with the rest of the world, undemocratic and dangerous ; remember, the power corrupt. Economic development, Healthcare, education are for entire world not only for a few nations, for our future is better to see China and India being developped countries to boost others regions like Africa to move up. US must change to be less arrogant and admit their limits if they want to lead something.