For example, if citizens of one country have invested heavily abroad in, say, shares, and those shares produced a regular dividend income which is repatriated each year to the country of the share owners, this income would show up in the figurers for gross national income.

Gross National Product is a synonym of Gross National Income. Formerly, Gross National Income was the most popular measure of a country’s wealth. As the levels of global trade increased, however, and countries became more economically interdependent, and large multi-national corporations evolved with activities in many countries, eventually Gross Domestic Product came to be the preferred measure of wealth for most economic purposes.

For most countries Gross Domestic Product and Gross National Income are almost identical. In a few rare instances, though, there may be a significant difference.