Economic growth is an increase in the capacity of an economy to produce goods and services compared from one period to another. The long pattern of growth in the US since 1900 has been an increase in real GDP per capita. GDP (Gross domestic product) is the the monetary measures of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a given period of time. Real GDP per capita is the measure of the total output of a country that takes the real GDP and divides it by the number of people in a country.