Difference between the International Dollar and PPP

Question

This may be a very rudimentary question but I am trying to discern the difference between purchasing power parity and the international dollar.

I am starting to work on a project where we are trying to look at infant mortality rates and their relation to GDP along with some other indicators from different countries. I have started to look for different data through GapMinder.

Reading some of the variable descriptions they claim to have the GDP in PPP and then some other reference GDP PPP in international dollars.

So I then took to the internet looking for the difference. The Wikipedia artilce on the Geary–Khamis dollar is leading me to believe they are the same thing if i am using USD as my base dollar unit?

So my question ultimately would be: What is the difference between the international dollar and PPP?

Answer 1

They are different stages of the same process. You convert a country's GDP into international dollars USING PPP.

PPP are rates. They are a relation between prices in different countries. International dollars is a unit of measurement.

The World Bank says "GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity (PPP). PPP GDP is gross domestic product converted to international dollars using purchasing power parity rates. An international dollar has the same purchasing power over GDP as the U.S. dollar has in the United States"