G20: How Many Countries Really?
The G20 summit will represent a fifth of the world’s governments.
1. The G20 consists of 19 national governments as well as the leader of the European Union (acting on behalf of all 28 EU members as a collective unit).
2. Four of the nineteen individual G20 governments – Germany, the UK, France and Italy – are also EU members, but get separate representation due to their individual economic sizes.
3. Taken all together, between the 28 EU countries and the 15 non-EU countries, the G20 officially represents 43 key countries from every world region.
4. Their main focus is on solving economic, legal and environmental issues of global governance.
5. Examples include overseas tax evasion and pollution control, which nation-states by themselves cannot control effectively.
6. There are approximately 196 countries in the world (depending on how one counts certain disputed entities).
7. Thus, the 43 countries that are actually represented at the G20 table equal about 22% of all countries.
8. Among the 19 national members of the G20, the per capita nominal GDP ranges from a low of $1,593/€1,427 (India) to a high of $56,291/€50,442 (Australia).
9. The United States has nearly the same per capita GDP as Australia.
10. The European Union’s per capita GDP for the full union is $35,100 (€31,418).
Sources: The Globalist Research Center, World Bank