GDP per capita of African countries 2022

Seychelles had the largest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in Africa as of 2022. The value amounted to 20.3 thousand U.S. dollars. Equatorial Guinea followed with 11.3 thousand U.S. dollars, whereas Gabon registered 10.3 thousand U.S. dollars. GDP per capita is calculated by dividing a country’s GDP by its population, meaning that some of the largest economies are not ranked within the leading ten.

Impact of COVID-19 on North Africa’s GDP

When looking at the GDP growth rate in Africa in 2021, Libya had the largest estimated growth by 131 percent compared to the previous year, a decline of 66.7 percent. Kenya and Botswana followed with rates of 7.6 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact on the economy was severe. The growth of the North African real GDP was estimated at minus 1.1 percent in 2020. However, estimations for 2022 are looking much brighter, as it was set that the region would see a GDP growth of six percent, compared to four percent in 2021.

Dependency on oil revenue

Various countries in Africa are very dependent on their oil revenues, contributing heavily to the economy. Besides a significant increase in the GDP growth rate, Libya had the highest oil revenue as a share of GDP as well with 52.6 percent in 2020. Gabon had an oil revenue as a share of GDP of 36.7 percent, whereas Chad registered nearly 31 percent. Moreover, four out of nine countries in the ranking were located in Central and North Africa.