what is gross national income gni 
gross national income gni is the total amount of money earned by a nation s people and businesses it is used to measure and track a nation s wealth from year to year the number includes the nation s gross domestic product gdp plus the income it receives from overseas sources the more widely known term gdp is an estimate of the total value of all goods and services produced within a nation for a set period usually a year gni is an alternative to gross domestic product gdp as a means of measuring and tracking a nation s wealth and is considered a more accurate indicator for some nations the u s bureau of economic affairs bea tracks the gdp to measure the health of the u s economy from year to year the two numbers are not significantly different finally there s gross national product gnp which is a broad measure of all economic activity investopedia laura porterunderstanding gross national income gni gni calculates the total income earned by a nation s people and businesses including investment income regardless of where it was earned it also covers money received from abroad such as foreign investment and economic development aid residence rather than citizenship is the criterion for determining nationality in gni calculations as long as the residents spend their income within the country gni has come to be preferred to gdp by organizations such as the world bank it also is used by the european union to calculate the contributions of member nations to calculate gni compensation paid to resident employees by foreign firms and income from overseas property owned by residents is added to gdp while compensation paid by resident firms to overseas employees and income generated by foreign owners of domestic property is subtracted product and import taxes that are not already accounted for in gdp are also added to gni while subsidies are subtracted to convert a nation s gdp to gni three terms need to be added to the former real world examples of gnifor many nations there is little difference between gdp and gni since the difference between income received by the country versus payments made to the rest of the world does not tend to be significant for instance the u s gni for 2021 was about 23 6 trillion 1 the gdp in that same year was 23 3 trillion 2for some countries however the difference is significant gni can be much higher than gdp if a country receives a large amount of foreign aid or foreign investment this is the case with bangladesh which recorded a 2021 gni of 438 billion compared to a gdp of 416 billion but it can be much lower if foreigners control a large proportion of a country s production as is the case with ireland a low tax jurisdiction where the european and u s subsidiaries of a number of multinational companies nominally reside ireland recorded a 2021 gni of just over 382 billion while their gdp for the same period stood at 504 billion 12gdp vs gni vs gnpof the three measures gnp is the least used possibly because it might be deceptive for instance if a nation s wealthiest citizens routinely move their money offshore counting that money would inflate the nation s apparent wealth in fact gni may now be the most accurate reflection of national wealth given today s mobile population and global commerce 