Singapore has a very impressive GDP per capita, but it is massively skewed by external investment (with money that often flows straight back out of the country again), construction and being a major regional hub.<p>To say Singapore has a higher GDP than any Western country isn&#x27;t quite a fair comparison. 
For contrast, the GDP per capita in London (pop 8.5M) which benefits similarly form being a regional hub has a GDP per capita of $73k [1] vs about $55k in Singapore (pop 5.4M) [2].<p>For a different picture try looking at a figure that looks at household wealth, e.g. household final consumption per capital. These numbers are less skewed by external investment and look at the real purchasing power of average people.<p>On these figures  (US$) taken from: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;data.worldbank.org&#x2F;indicator&#x2F;NE.CON.PRVT.PC.KD" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;data.worldbank.org&#x2F;indicator&#x2F;NE.CON.PRVT.PC.KD</a><p>Singapore: $12,355
Switzerland $33,284
USA: $31,469
UK: $25,828
Germany: $21,769<p>By this metric Singapore is far behind most Western economies and is in the same basket as Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Portugal.<p>Don&#x27;t get me wrong, the progress that has been made in Singapore is amazing. I just think it is far too easy to be dazzled by high GDP figures, and miss out on the bigger picture.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_the_European_Union_by_GDP" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;List_of_metropolitan_areas_in_...</a>
[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;data.worldbank.org&#x2F;indicator&#x2F;NY.GDP.PCAP.CD" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;data.worldbank.org&#x2F;indicator&#x2F;NY.GDP.PCAP.CD</a>