There’s no question that the United States and other developed nations face fierce competition from rapidly expanding economies like China and India. Our own Mike Tuttle reported last week that Americans have declining confidence in their economic place at the top, while companies like Paypal and new technological developments like the trend toward cloud computing are taking more services and jobs to these booming markets.

Not only do developed nations have to worry about losing their places in the globalized pecking order, but they also have to worry about the environmental implications of rapid growth in countries with less than stellar environmental records and regulations. (Remember the giant Chinese smog cloud that’s crossed the Pacific?) These are things to watch out for as developing countries — especially China — try to elevate their statuses in the global marketplace. Here’s a chart from the folks at Statista, detailing the facts about the second-largest economy in the world (by GDP), and one of the fastest growing.

If China is able to stabilize inflation, maintain low unemployment, and keep attracting outsourced jobs and developing new markets, it could very well surpass the United States as the global economic leader in the not too distant future.

[Photo Source: Business Pundit]