Something like Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns [1] helps explain this ostensibly unbelievable fact. It reminds of a similar statistic about the number of

Something like Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns [1] helps explain this ostensibly unbelievable fact. It reminds of a similar statistic about the number of years that passed before a country's GDP doubled. UK did it in 154 years (early 17th century to mid 18th century) and China doubled its GDP in just 12 years [2]. For further reading check out an answer on Quora [3] where I found the McKinsey Global Institute report. [1] http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns [2] http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/dotcom/Insights%20and%20pubs/MGI/Research/Urbanization/Urban%20world%20-%20Rise%20of%20the%20consuming%20class/MGI_Urban_world_Rise_of_the_consuming_class_Full_report.ashx http://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/dotcom/Insights%20a... [3] http://www.quora.com/What-dont-we-know-about-the-Chinese-economy http://www.quora.com/What-dont-we-know-about-the-Chinese-eco...