As of April 2025, South Africa's GDP was estimated at over 410 billion U.S. dollars, the highest in Africa. Egypt followed, with a GDP worth around 347 billion U.S. dollars, and ranked as the second-highest on the continent. Algeria ranked third, with nearly 269 billion U.S. dollars. These African economies are among some of the fastest-growing economies worldwide. Dependency on oil For some African countries, the oil industry represents an enormous source of income. In Nigeria, oil generates over five percent of the country’s GDP in the third quarter of 2023. However, economies such as the Libyan, Algerian, or Angolan are even much more dependent on the oil sector. In Libya, for instance, oil rents account for over 40 percent of the GDP. Indeed, Libya is one of the economies most dependent on oil worldwide. Similarly, oil represents for some of Africa’s largest economies a substantial source of export value. The giants do not make the ranking Most of Africa’s largest economies do not appear in the leading ten African countries for GDP per capita. The GDP per capita is calculated by dividing a country’s GDP by its population. Therefore, a populated country with a low total GDP will have a low GDP per capita, while a small rich nation has a high GDP per capita. For instance, South Africa has Africa’s highest GDP, but also counts the sixth-largest population, so wealth has to be divided into its big population. The GDP per capita also indicates how a country’s wealth reaches each of its citizens. In Africa, Seychelles has the greatest GDP per capita.

This dataset provides values for GDP PER CAPITA reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

List of the individual- and community-level factors that affect the timing and adequacy of ANC, in SSA countries 2016–2021.

Distribution of Sociodemographic characteristics of study participants across timeliness and adequacy of ANC visits in SSA, 2016–2021.

Results of a multilevel mixed-effect multivariable logistic regression analysis to identify the factors affecting the early initiation of ANC in SSA, 2016–2021.

South Africa ZA: Total Natural Resources Rents: % of GDP data was reported at 4.698 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 4.319 % for 2015. South Africa ZA: Total Natural Resources Rents: % of GDP data is updated yearly, averaging 5.173 % from Dec 1970 (Median) to 2016, with 47 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 14.575 % in 1980 and a record low of 1.916 % in 1970. South Africa ZA: Total Natural Resources Rents: % of GDP data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Total natural resources rents are the sum of oil rents, natural gas rents, coal rents (hard and soft), mineral rents, and forest rents.; ; World Bank staff estimates based on sources and methods described in 'The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable Future' (Lange et al 2018).; Weighted Average;

South Africa ZA: Oil Rents: % of GDP data was reported at 0.005 % in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.006 % for 2015. South Africa ZA: Oil Rents: % of GDP data is updated yearly, averaging 0.000 % from Dec 1971 (Median) to 2016, with 46 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.129 % in 2008 and a record low of 0.000 % in 1996. South Africa ZA: Oil Rents: % of GDP data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Oil rents are the difference between the value of crude oil production at regional prices and total costs of production.; ; World Bank staff estimates based on sources and methods described in 'The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable Future' (Lange et al 2018).; Weighted Average;

Results of a multilevel mixed-effect multivariable logistic regression analysis to identify determinants of the receipt of adequate ANC in SSA, 2016–2020.

In 2025, Luxembourg was the country with the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Of the 20 listed countries, 13 are in Europe and five are in Asia, alongside the U.S. and Australia. There are no African or Latin American countries among the top 20. Correlation with high living standards While GDP is a useful indicator for measuring the size or strength of an economy, GDP per capita is much more reflective of living standards. For example, when compared to life expectancy or indices such as the Human Development Index or the World Happiness Report, there is a strong overlap - 14 of the 20 countries on this list are also ranked among the 20 happiest countries in 2024, and all 20 have "very high" HDIs. Misleading metrics? GDP per capita figures, however, can be misleading, and to paint a fuller picture of a country's living standards then one must look at multiple metrics. GDP per capita figures can be skewed by inequalities in wealth distribution, and in countries such as those in the Middle East, a relatively large share of the population lives in poverty while a smaller number live affluent lifestyles.

This statistic shows the 20 countries with the highest growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024. In 2024, Guyana ranked 1st with an estimated GDP growth of approximately 43.57 percent compared to the previous year. GDP around the world Gross domestic product (GDP) is an indicator of the monetary value of all goods and services produced by a nation in a specific time period. GDP is a strong index of a country’s economic strength - the higher the GDP of a nation, the stronger that country’s economy. The countries in the world with the highest GDP or GDP per capita are mainly developed and emerging countries, with global gross domestic product amounting to nearly 75 trillion U.S. dollars. As of 2016, the United States is the nation in the world with the highest GDP with more than 18.56 trillion U.S. dollars, which makes up more than 15.7 percent of the global GDP. The countries with the lowest gross domestic product per capita in 2014 were mainly African nations. The country in the world with the lowest GDP per capita in 2016 was South Sudan, followed by Malawi, and Burundi. However, several economically struggling African and Asian countries such as Myanmar, Côte d'Ivoire, Bhutan, and India reported the highest growth of the gross domestic product in 2016. Also in the top 20 nations with the highest growth of the GDP is China. In 2016, the GDP in China was the second highest GDP in the world. It is estimated that by 2019 the GDP in China will grow by 6 percent. Based on this estimate, GDP in China will be at around 14.6 trillion U.S. dollars by 2019.

This data file includes the Gini coefficient calculated for different wealth welfare aggregates constructed for all Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) datasets in all waves (as of March 2022). It includes Gini coefficients calculated on: • Disposable Net Worth • Value of Principal residence • Financial Assets

This project sought to renew the ESRC's invaluable financial support to LIS (formerly the Luxembourg Income Study) for a period of five more years. LIS is an independent, non-profit cross-national data archive and research institute located in Luxembourg. LIS relies on financial contributions from national science foundations, other research institutions and consortia, data-providing agencies, and supranational organisations to support data harmonisation and enable free and unlimited data access to researchers in the participating countries and to students world-wide. LIS' primary activity is to make harmonised household microdata available to researchers, thus enabling cross-national, interdisciplinary primary research into socio-economic outcomes and their determinants. Users of the Luxembourg Income Study Database and Luxembourg Wealth Study Database come from countries around the globe, including the UK. LIS has four goals: 1) to harmonise microdatasets from high- and middle-income countries that include data on income, wealth, employment, and demography; 2) to provide a secure method for researchers to query data that would otherwise be unavailable due to country-specific privacy restrictions; 3) to create and maintain a remote-execution system that sends research query results quickly back to users at off-site locations; and 4) to enable, facilitate, promote and conduct crossnational comparative research on the social and economic wellbeing of populations across countries. LIS contains the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) Database, which includes income data, and the Luxembourg Wealth Study (LWS) Database, which focuses on wealth data. LIS currently includes microdata from 46 countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Asia and Australasia. LIS contains over 250 datasets, organised into eight time "waves," spanning the years 1968 to 2011. Since 2007, seventeen more countries have been added to LIS, including the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), Japan, South Korea and a number of other Latin American countries. LWS contains 20 wealth datasets from 12 countries, including the UK, and covers the period 1994 to 2007. All told, LIS and LWS datasets together cover 86% of world GDP and 64% of world population. Users submit statistical queries to the microdatabases using a Java-based job submission interface or standard email. The databases are especially valuable for primary research in that they offer access to cross-national data at the micro-level - at the level of households and persons. Users are economists, sociologists, political scientists, and policy analysts, among others, and they employ a range of statistical approaches and methods. LIS also provides extensive documentation - metadata - for both LIS and LWS, concerning technical aspects of the survey data, the harmonisation process, and the social institutions of income and wealth provision in participating countries. In the next five years, for which support is sought, LIS will: - expand LIS, adding Waves IX (2013) and X (2016), and add new middle-income countries; - develop LWS, adding another wave of datasets to existing countries; acquire new wealth datasets for 14 more countries in cooperation with the European Central Bank (based on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey); - create a state-of-the-art metadata search and storage system; - maintain international standards in data security and data infrastructure systems; - provide high-quality harmonised household microdata to researchers around the world; - enable interdisciplinary cross-national social science research covering 45+ countries, including the UK; - aim to broaden its reach and impact in academic and non-academic circles through focused communications strategies and collaborations.

In 2025, nearly 11.7 percent of the world population in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 2.15 U.S. dollars a day, lived in Nigeria. Moreover, the Democratic Republic of the Congo accounted for around 11.7 percent of the global population in extreme poverty. Other African nations with a large poor population were Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar. Poverty levels remain high despite the forecast decline Poverty is a widespread issue across Africa. Around 429 million people on the continent were living below the extreme poverty line of 2.15 U.S. dollars a day in 2024. Since the continent had approximately 1.4 billion inhabitants, roughly a third of Africa’s population was in extreme poverty that year. Mozambique, Malawi, Central African Republic, and Niger had Africa’s highest extreme poverty rates based on the 2.15 U.S. dollars per day extreme poverty indicator (updated from 1.90 U.S. dollars in September 2022). Although the levels of poverty on the continent are forecast to decrease in the coming years, Africa will remain the poorest region compared to the rest of the world. Prevalence of poverty and malnutrition across Africa Multiple factors are linked to increased poverty. Regions with critical situations of employment, education, health, nutrition, war, and conflict usually have larger poor populations. Consequently, poverty tends to be more prevalent in least-developed and developing countries worldwide. For similar reasons, rural households also face higher poverty levels. In 2024, the extreme poverty rate in Africa stood at around 45 percent among the rural population, compared to seven percent in urban areas. Together with poverty, malnutrition is also widespread in Africa. Limited access to food leads to low health conditions, increasing the poverty risk. At the same time, poverty can determine inadequate nutrition. Almost 38.3 percent of the global undernourished population lived in Africa in 2022.

Nigeria was the leading oil producer in Africa as of 2023. Oil production amounted to roughly ** million metric tons in the country. Algeria, Libya, and Angola followed, each with an output above ** million metric tons. In the same year, the overall production of oil in Africa, including crude oil, shale oil, oil sands, and NGLs, reached ***** million metric tons, *** percent more than in 2022. Main producers, main exportersWhile being the main oil producer in Africa, Nigeria was also the largest crude oil exporter in the continent. The country sold nearly *** million barrels of oil daily to the international market in 2022. Angola and Libya followed, with an export volume of roughly *** million and ******* barrels per day, respectively. North and West Africa's contribution to the global oil exports reached nearly ***** percent as of 2023. Reserves and refinery capacityAfrica’s crude oil reserves remained stable in 2021, accumulating to ***** billion barrels. From a country perspective, Libya had the highest amount of crude oil reserves in the continent, **** billion barrels, while the Nigerian reserves amounted to **** billion barrels. When it comes to oil refining, Egypt led, with a refinery capacity of *** thousand barrels daily.

South Africa ZA: Quality of Port Infrastructure: WEF: 1=Extremely Underdeveloped To 7=Well Developed and Efficient by International Standards data was reported at 4.800 NA in 2017. This records a decrease from the previous number of 4.900 NA for 2016. South Africa ZA: Quality of Port Infrastructure: WEF: 1=Extremely Underdeveloped To 7=Well Developed and Efficient by International Standards data is updated yearly, averaging 4.700 NA from Dec 2007 (Median) to 2017, with 11 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 4.900 NA in 2016 and a record low of 4.397 NA in 2007. South Africa ZA: Quality of Port Infrastructure: WEF: 1=Extremely Underdeveloped To 7=Well Developed and Efficient by International Standards data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Transportation. The Quality of Port Infrastructure measures business executives' perception of their country's port facilities. Data are from the World Economic Forum's Executive Opinion Survey, conducted for 30 years in collaboration with 150 partner institutes. The 2009 round included more than 13,000 respondents from 133 countries. Sampling follows a dual stratification based on company size and the sector of activity. Data are collected online or through in-person interviews. Responses are aggregated using sector-weighted averaging. The data for the latest year are combined with the data for the previous year to create a two-year moving average. Scores range from 1 (port infrastructure considered extremely underdeveloped) to 7 (port infrastructure considered efficient by international standards). Respondents in landlocked countries were asked how accessible are port facilities (1 = extremely inaccessible; 7 = extremely accessible).; ; World Economic Forum, Global Competiveness Report.; Unweighted average;

South Africa ZA: Natural Gas Rents: % of GDP data was reported at 0.012 % in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.013 % for 2015. South Africa ZA: Natural Gas Rents: % of GDP data is updated yearly, averaging 0.007 % from Dec 1971 (Median) to 2016, with 46 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.028 % in 2008 and a record low of 0.000 % in 1989. South Africa ZA: Natural Gas Rents: % of GDP data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Natural gas rents are the difference between the value of natural gas production at regional prices and total costs of production.; ; World Bank staff estimates based on sources and methods described in 'The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable Future' (Lange et al 2018).; Weighted average;

As of 2024, some 6.9 million people in Ghana lived in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 2.15 U.S. dollars per day. This stood as an increase from the previous year when roughly 6.8 million people lived in the said state of poverty. In 2026, around 6.7 million Ghanaians are expected to live on a maximum of 2.15 U.S. dollars daily.

Poverty in the country is segregated

Indeed, poverty figures do not considerably vary when considering men and women apart. In 2024, around 3.5 million men lived in extreme poverty in Ghana, while the count reached roughly 3.3 million for women. On the other hand, in distinguishing the state of extreme poverty among rural and urban dwellers, the difference is striking, even when based on the previously set poverty line of 1.90 U.S. dollars per day. Overall, 1.1 percent of the world's population in extreme poverty lived in Ghana as of 2024.

Ghana's Private Wealth Position in Africa

Ghana is one of the African countries with the highest private wealth concentration, ranking 6th after Kenya as of 2021. That year, the country's total private wealth amounted to 59 billion U.S. dollars, corresponding to around 1,900 U.S. dollars per capita. Between 2011 and 2021, the total wealth held by individuals in Ghana increased, representing a higher growth in comparison to other African countries save five. Overall, the nation ranks 9th in Africa in terms of countries with high net-worth individuals.

This statistic shows the production of cocoa beans from 2020/21 to 2023/24. In crop year 2023/2024, an estimated *** million metric tons of cocoa beans were produced in Côte d'Ivoire. Production is forecast to slightly increase in 2024/2025, to *** million metric tons. Cocoa production Cocoa, a native to the Americas, was a valuable crop in the earliest South American cultures. The term cocoa originated from the Nahuatl word “cacahuatl”. Many believe that the plant first grew in the Amazon and upper Orinoco basins but the Mayans and the Aztecs eventually developed techniques to cultivate cocoa successfully. The plant was considered as a symbol of wealth for these civilizations and its beans were used as currency. Cocoa beans are the main ingredient for making chocolate.Cocoa beans are produced in tropical zones around the Equator, where climate conditions are well suited for growing cocoa trees. About 70 percent of the world’s cocoa beans come from four West African countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. The Ivory Coast and Ghana are by far the two largest producers of cocoa, accounting for more than ** percent of the world's cocoa.

This statistic shows the inequality of income distribution in China from 2005 to 2023 based on the Gini Index. In 2023, China reached a score of ************ points. The Gini Index is a statistical measure that is used to represent unequal distributions, e.g. income distribution. It can take any value between 1 and 100 points (or 0 and 1). The closer the value is to 100 the greater is the inequality. 40 or 0.4 is the warning level set by the United Nations. The Gini Index for South Korea had ranged at about **** in 2022. Income distribution in China The Gini coefficient is used to measure the income inequality of a country. The United States, the World Bank, the US Central Intelligence Agency, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development all provide their own measurement of the Gini coefficient, varying in data collection and survey methods. According to the United Nations Development Programme, countries with the largest income inequality based on the Gini index are mainly located in Africa and Latin America, with South Africa displaying the world's highest value in 2022. The world's most equal countries, on the contrary, are situated mostly in Europe. The United States' Gini for household income has increased by around ten percent since 1990, to **** in 2023. Development of inequality in China Growing inequality counts as one of the biggest social, economic, and political challenges to many countries, especially emerging markets. Over the last 20 years, China has become one of the world's largest economies. As parts of the society have become more and more affluent, the country's Gini coefficient has also grown sharply over the last decades. As shown by the graph at hand, China's Gini coefficient ranged at a level higher than the warning line for increasing risk of social unrest over the last decade. However, the situation has slightly improved since 2008, when the Gini coefficient had reached the highest value of recent times.