The US, China, and India on one radar: a 33-fold income gap, a seven-year life gap

Key takeaways

The income gap across the three countries is enormous: GDP per capita of $90,027 in the United States, $13,862 in China, $2,702 in India (2025). That is 33 to one between the ends.
Life expectancy refuses to follow: China reached 78.0 years in 2024, within a year of the United States at 78.9, on about 15 percent of the income. India is at 72.2, under seven years behind the US.
All three countries are now below replacement fertility. India, long the exception, is at 1.96 births per woman; the US at 1.63; China at 1.01, roughly half the replacement rate.

What's happening

The radar draws each country's development profile as one shape across five spokes: GDP per capita, life expectancy, internet use, fertility, and CO2 emissions per person. Each spoke scales to its own leader, so the chart reads as relative position, not absolute units; a country touching the rim leads that measure. The point of the shape is that no country is round. The US polygon runs the rim on income, emissions, and internet use, then pulls inward on fertility. India's shape is the inverse: the rim on fertility, deep inside on income and emissions.

China's shape is the interesting one. On income its spoke reaches only about 15 percent of the US mark, but on life expectancy and internet use its polygon nearly overlaps the American one. Rich-country outcomes, middle-income wallet.

78.0 vs 78.9

Life expectancy at birth, China and the United States, 2024. The two countries sit within a year of each other; the income gap between them is six and a half to one.

Outcomes decoupled from income

A generation ago, life expectancy tracked national income closely. This chart shows how far that link has bent: China added rich-country lifespans without rich-country incomes, and India, at $2,702 per head, already reaches 72.2 years, a figure the United States itself only passed in the mid-1970s. Public health, vaccination, and basic sanitation scale at costs far below what the income spoke would suggest.

Emissions still track industry: the CO2 spoke orders exactly by industrial intensity, the US at 13.6 tonnes per person, China at 9.3, India at 2.2. And connectivity has almost finished converging: internet use runs 94.7 percent in the US, 91.6 in China, and 70 percent in India, the spoke where India is closing fastest.

The fertility crossover

The most consequential number on the chart is the quietest. India's fertility rate, 1.96, sits below the replacement level of roughly 2.1 for the first time in its recorded history; the US is at 1.63; China is at 1.01, among the lowest rates of any large country. The spoke where India leads the radar is a measure every one of the three is now losing. The demographic futures the three shapes imply, an aging China, a briefly young India, a US padded by immigration, will do more to reorder the other four spokes than any near-term policy.

What to watch

Whether China's life expectancy passes the United States in the next release, with less than a year between them. How fast India's internet spoke closes toward the other two, since it moved from minority access to 70 percent in about a decade. And whether China's fertility stabilizes near 1.0 or keeps falling, the single number with the longest consequences on this chart. The underlying series are on the statistic page, one line per country per measure.

Common questions

How do the three countries compare on income?

GDP per capita in 2025: United States $90,027, China $13,862, India $2,702. That is 6.5 to one between the US and China, and 33 to one between the US and India.

Is China's life expectancy really close to the US?

Yes: 78.0 years against 78.9 in 2024, per World Bank data. The gap has narrowed to under a year.

Which of the three has the highest fertility rate?

India, at 1.96 births per woman in 2024, though that is now below the replacement level of about 2.1. The US is at 1.63 and China at 1.01.

How does the radar scale such different units?

Each spoke is normalized to its own maximum across the three countries, so the chart compares relative position per measure. The exact values in original units are on the statistic page and in the download.

Data: five World Bank indicators for the United States, China, and India (GDP per capita in current US dollars, life expectancy at birth, individuals using the internet, fertility rate, CO2 emissions per capita), from the Kitegraph library. The radar shows each country's latest available reading per indicator; vintages mix 2024 and 2025 because the indicators publish on different lags. Each spoke is scaled to its own maximum, so shapes read as relative position. The replacement-rate benchmark of about 2.1 births per woman is the standard demographic convention.