Datastream

Ranked: The 25 Poorest Countries by GDP per Capita

Published

2 years ago

March 29, 2023

Pallavi Rao

A map of the poorest countries in the world. Countries with the lowest per capita GDP are highlighted.

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The Briefing

Global GDP per capita continues to grow every year, and is projected to sit at $13,920 for 2023 (current prices)
There are as many as 123 countries whose per capita GDP is below the global average
Burundi is the poorest country in the world with a per capita GDP of about $308

Ranked: Which Are the World’s Poorest Countries?

There are different ways to measure economic activity and wealth of a country, and for this article on the world’s least-wealthy nations, we’ve used GDP per capita projections for this year from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Nominal world GDP per capita is expected to go from $13,400 in 2022 to $13,920 in 2023, but in contrast to the rest of the world, per capita economic output in Africa is much lower than in continents such as North America or Europe.

ℹ️ GDP per capita is a measure of the total economic output of a country (GDP) divided by the total population of the country.

Here are the countries with the lowest per capita GDP, all below the global average.

Country	GDP per capita (USD)
Burundi	$308
Sierra Leone	$472
Malawi	$483
Central African Republic	$516
Madagascar	$540
Somalia	$562
South Sudan	$570
Niger	$574
Mozambique	$579
Eritrea	$700
Congo	$704
Chad	$755
Liberia	$770
Burkina Faso	$832
Yemen	$872
Guinea-Bissau	$874
Mali	$877
Gambia, The	$883
Sudan	$930
Rwanda	$968
Togo	$1,008
Tajikistan	$1,050
Uganda	$1,164
Myanmar	$1,173
Lesotho	$1,209
Ethiopia	$1,227
Comoros	$1,303
Tanzania	$1,341
Nepal	$1,372
Benin	$1,383
Zambia	$1,396
Guinea	$1,446
Timor-Leste	$1,495
Kyrgyz Republic	$1,570
Cameroon	$1,609
Senegal	$1,640
Kiribati	$1,732
Haiti	$1,792
Cambodia	$1,902
Lao P.D.R.	$1,985
Ghana	$2,131
Kenya	$2,259
São Tomé and Príncipe	$2,302
Zimbabwe	$2,308
Solomon Islands	$2,330
Mauritania	$2,366
Côte d'Ivoire	$2,497
Nicaragua	$2,541
Uzbekistan	$2,555
Nigeria	$2,585
India	$2,692
Congo	$2,844
Bangladesh	$2,847
Honduras	$3,080
Vanuatu	$3,115
Venezuela	$3,267
West Bank and Gaza	$3,544
Papua New Guinea	$3,570
Cabo Verde	$3,709
Tunisia	$3,762
Philippines	$3,764
Bolivia	$3,792
Bhutan	$3,856
Djibouti	$3,870
Angola	$3,998
Morocco	$4,068
Samoa	$4,126
Algeria	$4,163
Eswatini	$4,189
Micronesia	$4,309
Egypt	$4,438
Vietnam	$4,683
Mongolia	$4,726
Jordan	$4,930
Indonesia	$5,006
Guatemala	$5,007
Suriname	$5,037
Namibia	$5,053
El Salvador	$5,076
Marshall Islands	$5,087
Tonga	$5,368
Kosovo	$5,560
Moldova	$5,744
Fiji	$5,869
Paraguay	$5,907
Jamaica	$5,985
Tuvalu	$6,215
Iraq	$6,320
Belize	$6,382
Libya	$6,392
Armenia	$6,568
Ecuador	$6,588
Albania	$6,592
South Africa	$6,813
Azerbaijan	$6,872
Colombia	$6,940
Bosnia and Herzegovina	$7,082
North Macedonia	$7,263
Georgia	$7,270
Peru	$7,354
Botswana	$7,463
Thailand	$8,274
Dominica	$8,840
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	$9,432
Brazil	$9,572
Mauritius	$9,832
Gabon	$9,850
Belarus	$9,938
Serbia	$10,076
Equatorial Guinea	$10,087
Nauru	$10,097
Montenegro	$10,722
Türkiye	$10,864
Grenada	$11,156
Mexico	$11,251
Dominican Republic	$11,406
Saint Lucia	$11,679
Kazakhstan	$12,433
Turkmenistan	$13,021
Bulgaria	$13,221
China	$13,630
Argentina	$13,768
Costa Rica	$13,806

Burundi, with a population of nearly 13 million people, is one of the smallest countries in Africa by physical size. The country has the lowest per capita GDP at $308. Burundi gained independence in 1962 after being first a German, then Belgian colony, since the latter half of the 19th century.

It has struggled over the last 50 years with recurring civil strife and high levels of corruption. However, the IMF projects positive trends for the country’s economy, citing the impact of more recent economic reforms.

As a comparison point for global wealth disparity, the richest country in the world, Luxembourg, has a per capita GDP that is nearly 415 times that of Burundi.

Meanwhile, the second and third lowest per capita GDPs belong to Sierra Leone and Malawi, also from Africa, both nearly $200 more than Burundi.

All 20 of the world’s poorest countries, except for Yemen, are located on the African continent. This data points to the potential impacts of colonization, and later on globalization, that continue to have long-lasting implications on most African economies today.

» See a ranking of the richest countries in the world

Source: International Monetary Fund.

Data note: The IMF dataset does not include data for all countries, and those with missing data for 2023 have not been included in this visualization. Some of the countries not included are: Afghanistan, Bermuda, Cuba, Monaco, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria. For a full list of countries not included, refer to the IMF site. Furthermore, the GDP per capita dataset often updates as currency rates fluctuate, which may lead to slight differences in figures at the time of publishing.