Isn't GDP a reflection of total domestic product? If so, India's size alone would skew them toward the top of that list and wouldn't be an accurate measure of their general economic health. I could be wrong, and I'm way too lazy to research it for the sake of this post.
Yes, it is. All value added to an economy while exported product has been deducted. I remembered it has a formula and I checked it online:
GDP = private consumption + gross private investment + government investment + government spending + (exports – imports)
GDP by norminal and purchasing power parity (PPP) are the two that are commonly used
Norminal is normally used often but it has been a matter of debate of which one that will give most accurate result.
List of countries by GDP (nominal)India is the fifth
List of countries by GDP (PPP)India is the third
If using the purchasing power parity, It can give the result above with the methodology used by Chainanalysis, but if norminal is used and no comparison of goods or services to compare the purchasing power of each local currencies, India would not have gotten that high. Even if India is in the first position, very likely US will close the gap.
About your post, you are absolutely right, in a populous country, the GDP will be higher as a result of higher work force, production and activities etc, but not absolutely reflecting the standard of living in a country. Nigeria has the highest GDP in Africa, but we in the country know how people are suffering, minimum wage of ₦30000 monthly, if converted to United States dollar in parallel market, it will be $52.63 monthly (purchasing power is low but that amount is like suffering), the rate of unemployment is very high.
Nigeria, with its 200 million plus population, was first declared world’s poverty capital in 2018 in a report by the Brookings Institution, knocking off India from the position.
So before GDP will be used to know if citizens of a country is having quality standard of living or to determine if a country is economically fit, population of the country has to be determined, in populous country like India and Nigeria, their GDP should be higher than what it is now if their economy is good.
But what I just know is that this does not change the fact that they are part of the country that is adopting bitcoin and other decentralized currencies as a result of local currency depreciation.