Economic prosperity has long been attributed to economic growth since there are myriad benefits of a sound economy. The last fifty years have seen a dramatic change in the manner economic growth has been witnessed from some of the ‘Third World’ countries. With a view to understand the relation between economic growth and living standards the paper will focus on the economic growth of the two selected countries of USA and China. The paper will analyse the pertinent growth indicators for both these countries and will analyse and compare other facets of standards of living between these two countries. The paper will also discuss the scope of economic growth and its relation to the holistic development and growth for these two selected countries