A new version of the Maddison Project Database has been released today. This new version introduces a new measure of real GDP per capita that is based on both modern and historical comparisons of income levels, leading to a 'multiple benchmark' measure similar in spirit to that in the Penn World Table, but covering a substantially longer time period. This substantially changes results from earlier versions and does greater justice to the existing historical research. The new version of the database is introduced and discussed in an extensive documentation paper, which includes applications of the new data to the question of cross-country income convergence, the Balassa-Samuelson effect and the question when the US overtook the UK as the highest-income (large) economy in the world. The new data are released alongside a new website for the Maddison Project.