I am always curious to understand which country is the richest in the Middle East, and looking at the 2025 numbers, the answer is more interesting than it seems at first glance.

Turkey leads by a wide margin with $1.44 trillion in nominal GDP, closely followed by Saudi Arabia with $1.08 trillion. But here’s the catch: while Turkey is more of an industrial and diversified economy, Saudi Arabia is basically oil. Then there’s Israel with $583 billion, the United Arab Emirates with $549 billion, and Egypt with $347 billion.

The interesting part is that the richest country in the Middle East depends a lot on how you measure. If it’s by nominal GDP, it’s Turkey. But if it’s by per capita income or accumulated wealth, the story changes. The UAE and Qatar have much lower total GDP numbers, but they are much wealthier per person.

Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman complete the top 10, each with their own economic particularities. It’s worth noting that these nominal GDP figures don’t account for inflation, so they basically reflect the gross size of the economy in current dollars. That’s why larger economies with more population tend to be at the top.