To put it simply, the GDP is the total value of everything that is made (goods) and the services provided within a country based on the prices in the United States. Every day, you contribute to the GDP of the United States.

Look at the chart below. These are the top 10 countries with the highest GDP.

Gross Domestic Product 2010
(Worldbank, December 15, 2011)

Interactive exercise. Assistance may be required.

The total worldwide GDP in 2009 was over $70 TRILLION. If you took all of that money and laid it out in $1 bills, it would cover an area about the size of Texas. If the map of Texas below represented worldwide GDP, then the area in yellow would be the GDP of the United States.

Image of an outline map of Texas.

Adapted from: blank outline map of Texas, Wikipedia