Almost 2 million people don’t understand THIS common finance term

‘GDP’ has been revealed as the most confusing finance term in the world, with an average of 2 million Google searches each year for its definition.

That’s according to new research by City Index. In this study, the experts utilised search analytics tool, Ahrefs, to discover how often on average the definition of the 50 most used finance terms is searched for each year.

We hope this data is of use to you. If you wish to use it, we kindly ask that you credit appropriately with a link to: https://www.cityindex.com/en-uk/. 

Key findings:

• On average, “GDP definition” is googled over 165k times a month, with 6% of searches coming from the UK. 
• Acquisition (130,700 searches a month) and equity (111,400) come in second and third.
• “Capital” places 10^th with 28,000 searches for its definition each month on average, just 100 searches fewer on average than “overhead” (28,100 global searches per month). 

The results:

Rank	Finance term	Average monthly searches for the definition	Average yearly searches for the definition
1	Gross Domestic Product	166,300	1,995,600
2	Acquisition	130,700	1,568,400
3	Equity	111,400	1,336,800
4	Principal	96,000	1,152,000
5	Asset	73,700	884,400
6	Net worth	64,100	769,200
7	Amalgamation	62,500	750,000
8	Overdraft	41,100	493,200
9	Overhead	28,100	337,200
10	Capital	28,000	336,000

Please find the full data set attached here, including all finance definitions.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most confusing finance term

CityIndex can reveal that GDP is the most confusing finance term with an average of 166,300 monthly searches for ‘GDP definition’. This is over a quarter (27.2%) more searches than ‘acquisition’ in second place with 130,700 monthly searches. ‘GDP meaning’ is Googled most often in India (23% of all searches), the Philippines (12%), the US (12%) and the UK (6%).

*Definition: (GDP) “The total monetary or market value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific time period.”

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The finance term, acquisition is the second most searched for, averaging 130,700 monthlyGoogle searches. This is 17.3% more than equity in third place with 111,400 monthly searches. Interestingly, 5% of all searches for ‘acquisition definition’ come from the UK. 

*Definition: “An acquisition is when one company purchases most or all of another company’s shares to gain control of that company.”

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Equity ranks third with an average of 111,400 monthly searches for its definition,with 6% of these searches coming from the UK. The definition of equity is Googled 16% more than the term principal in fourth place with 96,000 monthlysearches.

*Definition: “Equity refers to partial ownership in a company or assets after subtracting all debts that are associated.”

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Capital is the tenth most confusing finance term

Ranking in tenth place is the financial term capital with an average of 28,000 searches for its definition each month. Capital is commonly misinterpreted for a similar term ‘asset‘ which ranks fifth in our table, and 8% of Google searches for the definition of ‘capital’ come just from the UK population.

*Definition: “The capital of a business is the money it has available to fund its day-to-day operations and to bankroll its expansion for the future. The proceeds of its business are one source of capital.”