By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Correspondent
RANKED 178 OUT of 189 countries surveyed, Nigeria stands as the 12th poorest globally by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in 2025.
This revelation is based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) data published by Visual Capitalist.
The report indicates that Nigeria’s GDP per capita stands at $807, highlighting the vast disparity between the country’s overall economic size and the income levels of its citizens.
Although Nigeria remains one of Africa’s largest economies by total GDP, the low per capita figure reflects ongoing economic difficulties for much of the population.
GDP per capita, which is calculated by dividing a country’s total economic output by its population, provides a measure of the average economic productivity per individual and allows comparisons across countries of varying sizes.
Nigeria’s large population is a significant factor in its poor ranking despite its sizeable economy.
South Sudan tops the global list as the poorest country, with a GDP per capita of $251, followed by Yemen, Burundi, the Central African Republic, and Malawi.
Other African countries also featured prominently in the lower rankings, including Madagascar, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Niger.
India, the fourth-largest economy in the world by total GDP, was ranked 50th poorest, with a GDP per capita of $2,878.
The report described this as a rare situation in which a top global economy shows relatively low levels of individual economic output.
It also cited Nigeria as another example of how a large economy can still reflect low per capita income due to its population size.
The analysis further pointed to persistent issues affecting many low-income countries, such as ongoing conflict, fragile governance structures, and underdeveloped industrial sectors, all of which continue to stifle income growth even as the broader global economy shows signs of recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Visual Capitalist also noted that data for several countries, including Afghanistan, Eritrea, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Palestine, were unavailable at the time of the report.
