Rather bizarrely, imports detract from GDP, even though total trade is a better indicator of economic health.

FORBES: GDP, North Dakota and Weather

Value investors often look closely at dividend policies as a part of total return on an investment and an indicator of the financial strength and prospects for a company.

FORBES: Connect

Use the total female population for each jurisdiction as a basis and you might get an indicator of whether your man had a correct assumption or not.

FORBES: Readers Say

The ratio of total wealth of the billionaires to gross domestic product (GDP) - an indicator of how extreme wealth compares with India's growth - rose from around 1% in the mid-1990s to 22% at the peak of the stock market boom in 2008, before dropping to 10% of GDP this year.

BBC: India's billionaires and the wealth of the nation