Poorest countries by GDP per capita

Burundi has the lowest nominal GDP per capita among the 187 countries with a 2024 observation in this comparison. Explore the complete ranking, then see how adjusting for local prices changes the picture.

2024 observations · Research reviewed 1 October 2026 · Sources & methodology

$216Burundi · nominal GDP per person

187 / 196Countries with 2024 nominal data

2 measuresMarket exchange rates and purchasing power

“Poorest” depends on the question

This page ranks annual economic output per resident, from lowest to highest. It does not rank the value of a country’s people, culture or natural resources. Nor does it tell you what a typical household earns: national output includes income that does not become wages, and averages conceal inequality.

Three questions are often confused. How much does an economy produce per person? Use GDP per capita. What can that output buy locally? Use the purchasing-power-adjusted version. How many people cannot afford basic needs? Use household poverty measures. A country can improve on one measure while making little progress on another.

Read the year before comparing. Every value in this table describes 2024. We do not mix a recent projection for one country with an older observation for another, or divide 2024 GDP by today’s population.

Complete country ranking

The lowest ten nominal observations are strongly concentrated geographically: 9 are in Africa, with Afghanistan also in this group. Burundi’s $216 per person is around 52% of the next observation, Afghanistan’s $417. Even at the low end, neighbouring ranks can conceal a substantial numerical gap.

Changing the unit gives useful additional context. Burundi’s PPP figure is $1,193 in international dollars, compared with its nominal figure in US dollars. That difference reflects a price adjustment, not a cash payment or an amount a household can exchange. The country’s position among other economies may change when the same adjustment is applied everywhere.

Afghanistan’s inclusion also shows why geography alone cannot explain the ranking. These observations describe output outcomes in particular countries and years. To explain an individual case, follow through to its economic and historical context rather than assuming that a continent label is a cause. The table’s regional filter supports comparison, but it does not isolate the effects of conflict, institutions, prices or any other factor.

Start with nominal GDP per capita, or sort the PPP column to change the question. A dash in the PPP column means that the companion observation is unavailable. Dollar amounts are rounded for display; sorting and exports retain the source precision.

187 countries. Scroll the table for all entries. Base rank follows the page’s main measure; sorting another column keeps that rank.

GDP per capita, 2024. Base rank: nominal, lowest first.
Base rank
1	Burundi	$216	Int$ 1,193
2	Afghanistan	$417	Int$ 2,236
3	Central African Republic	$516	Int$ 1,265
4	Malawi	$522	Int$ 1,860
5	Madagascar	$550	Int$ 1,889
6	Somalia	$630	Int$ 1,604
7	Mozambique	$657	Int$ 1,708
8	Democratic Republic of the Congo	$693	Int$ 1,823
9	Niger	$730	Int$ 2,044
10	Sierra Leone	$807	Int$ 3,527
11	Liberia	$851	Int$ 1,874
12	Gambia	$871	Int$ 3,481
13	Chad	$981	Int$ 2,767
14	Burkina Faso	$982	Int$ 2,901
15	Sudan	$985	Int$ 2,119
16	Guinea-Bissau	$998	Int$ 3,093
17	Lesotho	$1,023	Int$ 3,071
18	Rwanda	$1,060	Int$ 3,785
19	Uganda	$1,078	Int$ 3,278
20	Nigeria	$1,084	Int$ 9,100
21	Mali	$1,093	Int$ 3,322
22	Ethiopia	$1,134	Int$ 3,292
23	Zambia	$1,187	Int$ 4,221
24	Tanzania	$1,193	Int$ 4,227
25	Togo	$1,266	Int$ 3,815
26	Timor-Leste	$1,332	Int$ 4,429
27	Myanmar	$1,359	Int$ 6,006
28	Tajikistan	$1,362	Int$ 5,414
29	Nepal	$1,460	Int$ 5,746
30	Pakistan	$1,479	Int$ 6,263
31	Benin	$1,485	Int$ 4,441
32	Guinea	$1,695	Int$ 4,572
33	Senegal	$1,739	Int$ 5,097
34	Cameroon	$1,830	Int$ 5,597
35	Comoros	$1,858	Int$ 4,048
36	Solomon Islands	$1,934	Int$ 2,679
37	Haiti	$2,060	Int$ 3,169
38	Mauritania	$2,105	Int$ 7,379
39	Laos	$2,124	Int$ 9,790
40	Kenya	$2,133	Int$ 6,650
41	Ghana	$2,419	Int$ 8,051
42	Republic of the Congo	$2,482	Int$ 7,004
43	Zimbabwe	$2,496	Int$ 5,933
44	Kyrgyzstan	$2,515	Int$ 8,208
45	Kiribati	$2,551	Int$ 3,728
46	India	$2,592	Int$ 10,719
47	Bangladesh	$2,593	Int$ 9,661
48	Cambodia	$2,628	Int$ 7,982
49	Angola	$2,721	Int$ 9,964
50	Ivory Coast	$2,728	Int$ 7,680
51	Nicaragua	$2,848	Int$ 8,721
52	Papua New Guinea	$2,912	Int$ 4,887
53	Palestine	$3,028	Int$ 4,771
54	Uzbekistan	$3,337	Int$ 12,518
55	Egypt	$3,338	Int$ 19,122
56	Honduras	$3,416	Int$ 7,503
57	Sao Tome and Principe	$3,503	Int$ 6,274
58	Djibouti	$3,553	Int$ 7,822
59	Eswatini	$3,910	Int$ 11,823
60	Vanuatu	$3,960	Int$ 4,368
61	Philippines	$3,985	Int$ 11,814
62	Morocco	$4,153	Int$ 10,430
63	Tunisia	$4,188	Int$ 14,542
64	Bhutan	$4,228	Int$ 17,762
65	Venezuela	$4,244	—
66	Micronesia	$4,252	Int$ 4,452
67	Bolivia	$4,421	Int$ 12,896
68	Lebanon	$4,473	Int$ 11,917
69	Namibia	$4,502	Int$ 11,698
70	Sri Lanka	$4,545	Int$ 15,701
71	Vietnam	$4,717	Int$ 16,388
72	Indonesia	$4,925	Int$ 16,472
73	Jordan	$5,074	Int$ 11,916
74	Cape Verde	$5,170	Int$ 11,185
75	Iran	$5,190	Int$ 19,903
76	Ukraine	$5,392	Int$ 18,636
77	Samoa	$5,393	Int$ 8,751
78	El Salvador	$5,503	Int$ 13,258
79	Algeria	$5,753	Int$ 17,646
80	Tuvalu	$5,884	Int$ 6,366
81	Turkmenistan	$5,904	Int$ 21,026
82	Iraq	$6,074	Int$ 14,485
83	Guatemala	$6,151	Int$ 14,393
84	Tonga	$6,215	Int$ 8,174
85	South Africa	$6,267	Int$ 15,479
86	Fiji	$6,426	Int$ 15,473
87	Paraguay	$6,457	Int$ 18,632
88	Libya	$6,569	Int$ 14,325
89	Mongolia	$6,751	Int$ 19,173
90	Ecuador	$6,827	Int$ 15,848
91	Suriname	$6,962	Int$ 21,832
92	Equatorial Guinea	$7,004	Int$ 17,072
93	Azerbaijan	$7,295	Int$ 25,146
94	Thailand	$7,387	Int$ 24,909
95	Moldova	$7,579	Int$ 18,662
96	Marshall Islands	$7,590	Int$ 8,238
97	Botswana	$7,650	Int$ 20,612
98	Belize	$7,681	Int$ 14,367
99	Jamaica	$7,754	Int$ 12,909
100	Colombia	$7,951	Int$ 22,439
101	Gabon	$8,230	Int$ 21,541
102	Peru	$8,526	Int$ 17,882
103	Armenia	$8,556	Int$ 22,856
104	Belarus	$8,606	Int$ 33,166
105	Georgia	$8,968	Int$ 27,487
106	North Macedonia	$9,292	Int$ 26,996
107	Bosnia and Herzegovina	$9,398	Int$ 25,148
108	Brazil	$10,311	Int$ 22,371
109	Dominica	$10,405	Int$ 21,332
110	Dominican Republic	$10,876	Int$ 27,582
111	Albania	$11,374	Int$ 26,702
112	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	$11,501	Int$ 21,303
113	Grenada	$11,529	Int$ 19,903
114	Malaysia	$11,874	Int$ 38,836
115	Mauritius	$11,991	Int$ 31,697
116	Montenegro	$13,270	Int$ 34,063
117	China	$13,293	Int$ 27,140
118	Maldives	$13,379	Int$ 26,221
119	Serbia	$13,678	Int$ 32,832
120	Argentina	$13,970	Int$ 30,475
121	Mexico	$13,988	Int$ 25,820
122	Nauru	$14,048	Int$ 13,612
123	Kazakhstan	$14,155	Int$ 40,950
124	Saint Lucia	$14,494	Int$ 28,117
125	Russia	$14,962	Int$ 47,686
126	Turkey	$15,893	Int$ 45,123
127	Chile	$16,659	Int$ 36,071
128	Bulgaria	$17,597	Int$ 41,970
129	Palau	$18,169	Int$ 21,059
130	Seychelles	$18,365	Int$ 33,339
131	Trinidad and Tobago	$18,733	Int$ 36,381
132	Costa Rica	$18,853	Int$ 31,552
133	Panama	$19,161	Int$ 41,430
134	Romania	$20,080	Int$ 49,077
135	Oman	$20,285	Int$ 41,801
136	Antigua and Barbuda	$23,060	Int$ 33,352
137	Hungary	$23,305	Int$ 48,540
138	Latvia	$23,579	Int$ 43,873
139	Saint Kitts and Nevis	$23,961	Int$ 34,897
140	Croatia	$24,050	Int$ 49,551
141	Uruguay	$24,308	Int$ 36,597
142	Greece	$24,626	Int$ 44,171
143	Poland	$25,104	Int$ 51,263
144	Slovakia	$25,993	Int$ 47,847
145	Barbados	$26,897	Int$ 24,540
146	Portugal	$29,328	Int$ 52,513
147	Lithuania	$29,604	Int$ 55,699
148	Guyana	$29,675	Int$ 80,271
149	Bahrain	$29,717	Int$ 67,230
150	Estonia	$31,428	Int$ 50,396
151	Czech Republic	$31,828	Int$ 57,625
152	Kuwait	$32,856	Int$ 53,119
153	Brunei	$33,153	Int$ 90,010
154	Japan	$33,797	Int$ 54,156
155	Slovenia	$34,301	Int$ 57,571
156	Spain	$35,327	Int$ 58,064
157	Saudi Arabia	$35,528	Int$ 71,936
158	South Korea	$36,239	Int$ 61,051
159	Cyprus	$38,674	Int$ 63,007
160	Bahamas	$39,455	Int$ 41,258
161	Italy	$40,430	Int$ 62,293
162	Malta	$44,024	Int$ 70,063
163	France	$46,103	Int$ 62,525
164	Andorra	$49,357	Int$ 75,395
165	New Zealand	$49,432	Int$ 55,794
166	United Arab Emirates	$50,274	Int$ 79,344
167	Finland	$53,156	Int$ 65,137
168	United Kingdom	$53,341	Int$ 62,839
169	Israel	$54,217	Int$ 57,278
170	Canada	$55,016	Int$ 65,483
171	Germany	$56,104	Int$ 73,957
172	Belgium	$56,582	Int$ 74,225
173	Sweden	$57,223	Int$ 71,222
174	Austria	$58,269	Int$ 75,774
175	Australia	$64,610	Int$ 72,118
176	Netherlands	$67,465	Int$ 85,218
177	Denmark	$71,026	Int$ 80,938
178	Qatar	$75,685	Int$ 126,713
179	Iceland	$85,863	Int$ 83,561
180	United States	$86,170	Int$ 86,170
181	Norway	$89,889	Int$ 105,657
182	Singapore	$94,897	Int$ 153,161
183	Switzerland	$107,702	Int$ 97,468
184	Ireland	$112,895	Int$ 140,779
185	Luxembourg	$137,782	Int$ 156,079
186	Liechtenstein	$220,167	—
187	Monaco	$288,002	—

Download the complete data as CSV ↓

Which 9 countries are missing?

Cuba, Eritrea, North Korea, San Marino, South Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Vatican City, Yemen. Their absence reflects missing 2024 observations in the selected series. They are not assigned a zero or placed at the bottom.

Compare two countries

Country ACountry B

Burundi: 216 US$ per person. Spain: 35,327 US$ per person. Burundi’s figure is 0.01 times Spain’s.

Both values use the same measure and reference period as the main table. A ratio describes the figures, not the quality of life in either country.

How the ranking changes when prices matter

Converting output at market exchange rates can make a country look much poorer after a currency depreciation, even if its residents produce a similar quantity of goods. PPP adjusts for price differences. An international dollar is a statistical unit of purchasing power, not a banknote or an exchange rate you can obtain.

The comparison below is calculated only among the 184 countries with both observations. It identifies the largest changes in position when we rank the same countries by the two measures. This isolates the effect of changing the metric rather than changing membership of the comparison.

Largest rank differences within the common-data group, 2024
Country	Nominal rank, lowest first	PPP rank, lowest first	Positions apart
Nauru	121	74	47
Marshall Islands	95	55	40
Nigeria	20	58	38
Egypt	55	93	38
Barbados	144	107	37

Calculated from the two World Bank series above. These ranks use the common-data group and can differ from the full table’s base ranks.

Questions worth asking of any poverty ranking

Why do other lists name a different poorest country?

They may use PPP instead of nominal dollars, an IMF forecast instead of a World Bank observation, or include economies missing here. Compare the metric, year and coverage before deciding that one list contradicts another. South Sudan, for example, has no 2024 nominal observation in this snapshot and is therefore unranked here.

Can I divide the annual figure by 365 to estimate daily income?

The arithmetic is possible; the interpretation is not. GDP per capita is not money handed to each resident. A daily GDP figure is not a poverty line, a wage or a household spending allowance.

Does a low rank explain why a country is poor?

No. The table describes an outcome. Explaining it needs country-specific evidence about institutions, health, education, conflict, infrastructure, productive activity and external conditions. Inferring a single cause from a cross-country ranking would go beyond these data.

Sources & methodology

We match World Bank economies to our country directory by ISO3, exclude regional aggregates and territories outside the directory, and rank non-missing positive observations. Nominal and PPP figures each use their own published per-capita series. Display rounding does not determine order. The map uses five groups based on the distribution of included values.

World Bank: GDP per capita, current US dollars
2024 observations. Snapshot retrieved 1 October 2026; national accounts data and World Bank estimates. CC BY 4.0.
World Bank: GDP per capita at purchasing power parity
2024 current international dollars. Used as a separate comparator, not substituted into the nominal ranking.
World Bank: measuring poverty
Poverty monitoring uses household living standards and poverty thresholds; GDP per capita is a different measure.

Country lists follow our 196-profile directory convention: 193 UN members, Vatican City, Palestine and Taiwan. Dependent territories are identified separately. A missing observation never means zero.

“Poorest” depends on the question

Where output per person is lowest

Complete country ranking

Compare two countries

How the ranking changes when prices matter

Questions worth asking of any poverty ranking

Why do other lists name a different poorest country?

Can I divide the annual figure by 365 to estimate daily income?

Does a low rank explain why a country is poor?

Sources & methodology

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