Poorest Countries of the World: Projections upto 2018 By Dunya News http://www.dunyanews.tv Author: Anis uddin Shiekh (anis.shiekh@dunyatv.tv) December 2013 Copyright Dunya News
1 Introduction Poverty is multi-dimensional in its forms and manifestations. The ranking of countries on the basis of poverty by international organizations use various factors like quality of living, health, longevity of age, income, knowledge etc to rank a country as rich or poor. National governments of developing countries sometimes dispute the figures that define how rich or poor a country is by challenging one or the other indicator of poverty. The following report is an effort to define poverty by using Per Capita GDP and the population, figures that the governments rarely dispute. The report includes a list of countries in descending order to determine the poorest countries in the world.more importantly, the report also has a position projection on the basis of the statistical data available to us for the year 2018. If used by decision makers, the report could be helpful in evolving policies for reducing poverty and improving the quality of life for millions of people. Methodology It is a challenging task to preciselyassess the true extent of poverty. However, statistics become extremely valuable in such conditions. In this report,the Per Capita GDP has been used as a base indicator for the simple reason that the calculations for this particular figure involve the Gross Domestic Product and the population of the country as well. We have then sorted the data of 186 countries from the poorest to the richest. So, if the list is read upside down, it would be the list of the richest countries of the world thataccording to the available figures, is Luxemburg. Malawi gets the undesirable position of being the poorest country in the world. Data Source: All data has been extracted from IMF SEO database.
Poorest Countries in the world (based on PER Capita GDP) 2 1 Malawi 215.219 2 Democratic Republic of the Congo 241.01 3 Burundi 297.809 4 Niger 439.967 5 Central African Republic 444.491 6 Madagascar 458.323 7 The Gambia 477.652 8 Liberia 484.599 9 Ethiopia 532.753 10 Eritrea 543.237 11 Guinea-Bissau 545.962 12 Guinea 588.216 13 Uganda 613.79 14 Afghanistan 626.082 15 Mozambique 640.397 16 Togo 669.949 17 Mali 674.608 18 Burkina Faso 682.845 19 Tanzania 690.205 20 Nepal 692.639 21 Rwanda 723.603 22 Sierra Leone 729.384 23 Zimbabwe 799.172 24 Haiti 803.389 25 Benin 809.9 26 Bangladesh 899.298 27 Myanmar 914.948 28 Comoros 928.295 29 Cambodia 1,015.28 30 Kenya 1,045.86 31 Tajikistan 1,049.85 32 South Sudan 1,111.25 33 Mauritania 1,125.92 34 Senegal 1,140.57 35 Côte d'ivoire 1,175.16
Poorest Countries in the world (based on PER Capita GDP) 3 36 Chad 1,234.34 37 Cameroon 1,267.77 38 Kyrgyz Republic 1,281.83 39 Lesotho 1,288.96 40 Pakistan 1,295.36 41 India 1,414.11 42 Lao P.D.R. 1,490.31 43 Yemen 1,518.00 44 Sudan 1,526.93 45 Zambia 1,529.60 46 Kiribati 1,583.39 47 Djibouti 1,596.77 48 São Tomé and Príncipe 1,624.65 49 Nigeria 1,725.09 50 Ghana 1,781.73 51 Nicaragua 1,841.72 52 Uzbekistan 1,851.59 53 Vietnam 1,895.58 54 Solomon Islands 1,901.06 55 Moldova 2,214.49 56 Papua New Guinea 2,300.36 57 Honduras 2,331.05 58 Bolivia 2,700.53 59 Philippines 2,792.31 60 Bhutan 2,863.20 61 Vanuatu 3,105.91 62 Egypt 3,113.84 63 Sri Lanka 3,127.47 64 Armenia 3,176.28 65 Morocco 3,189.93 66 Micronesia 3,267.18 67 Tuvalu 3,371.06 68 Republic of Congo 3,407.96 69 Marshall Islands 3,436.91 70 Guatemala 3,481.64
Poorest Countries in the world (based on PER Capita GDP) 4 71 Swaziland 3,484.40 72 Indonesia 3,498.51 73 Georgia 3,557.98 74 Samoa 3,832.55 75 Ukraine 3,861.70 76 Mongolia 3,880.57 77 Guyana 3,884.03 78 El Salvador 3,899.58 79 Cape Verde 3,907.85 80 Albania 4,038.84 81 Tunisia 4,431.30 82 Paraguay 4,499.21 83 Tonga 4,604.91 84 Fiji 4,668.76 85 Belize 4,695.42 86 Bosnia and Herzegovina 4,865.57 87 Islamic Republic of Iran 5,039.30 88 FYR Macedonia 5,073.33 89 Timor-Leste 5,161.95 90 Jamaica 5,169.66 91 Jordan 5,207.31 92 Namibia 5,656.69 93 Algeria 5,668.36 94 Dominican Republic 5,690.45 95 Thailand 5,878.75 96 Angola 5,955.71 97 Serbia 6,017.13 98 Ecuador 6,154.06 99 Iraq 6,377.17 100 China 6,569.35 101 Maldives 6,746.37 102 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 6,762.75 103 Peru 6,797.34 104 South Africa 6,847.40 105 Dominica 6,992.47
5 Poorest Countries in the world (based on PER Capita GDP) 106 Turkmenistan 7,110.49 107 Montenegro 7,252.31 108 Bulgaria 7,411.15 109 Belarus 7,413.84 110 Botswana 7,470.06 111 Grenada 7,679.32 112 Colombia 7,830.67 113 St. Lucia 8,157.45 114 Azerbaijan 8,165.12 115 Romania 8,630.19 116 Suriname 9,061.06 117 Mauritius 9,135.64 118 Costa Rica 10,165.87 119 Malaysia 10,428.57 120 Lebanon 10,707.67 121 Turkey 10,744.70 122 Libya 10,863.57 123 Panama 10,916.50 124 Brazil 10,957.61 125 Mexico 11,224.48 126 Argentina 11,679.30 127 Venezuela 12,255.50 128 Gabon 12,773.38 129 Kazakhstan 13,048.37 130 St. Kitts and Nevis 13,118.24 131 Hungary 13,171.99 132 Croatia 13,312.35 133 Poland 13,333.63 134 Seychelles 13,683.96 135 Antigua and Barbuda 13,926.04 136 Palau 14,085.81 137 Latvia 14,923.99 138 Russia 14,973.48 139 Barbados 15,293.92
Poorest Countries in the world (based on PER Capita GDP) 6 141 Chile 16,043.10 142 Uruguay 16,833.65 143 Slovak Republic 17,929.23 144 Estonia 18,127.25 145 Czech Republic 18,868.35 146 Trinidad and Tobago 20,325.39 147 Portugal 20,663.23 148 Taiwan Province of China 20,706.20 149 Greece 21,617.40 150 Malta 22,322.85 151 Equatorial Guinea 22,343.63 152 Slovenia 22,718.63 153 The Bahamas 23,505.38 154 Korea 23,837.71 155 Bahrain 24,153.17 156 Saudi Arabia 24,246.47 157 Cyprus 24,705.94 158 Oman 25,719.93 159 Spain 29,408.93 160 Italy 33,909.12 161 Israel 34,651.38 162 Hong Kong SAR 38,604.93 163 United Kingdom 39,048.66 164 Japan 39,321.19 165 New Zealand 40,465.27 166 Brunei Darussalam 40,804.02 167 France 42,990.85 168 United Arab Emirates 43,184.84 169 Germany 43,952.01 170 Iceland 45,314.89 171 Belgium 45,537.46 172 Finland 47,625.45 173 Netherlands 47,650.90 174 Kuwait 47,829.01 175 Ireland 47,881.66
7 Poorest Countries in the world (based on PER Capita GDP) 176 Austria 49,255.61 177 Canada 51,871.21 178 United States 52,839.16 179 Singapore 52,917.95 180 Sweden 57,297.29 181 Denmark 57,998.67 182 Australia 64,156.92 183 Switzerland 80,275.78 184 Norway 101,271.40 185 Qatar 104,655.25 186 Luxembourg 110,573.00
8 Changes from Last year: Malawi has replaced Democratic Republic of the Congo at the summit of the poorest countries list from last year. Central African Republic has lost two places to feature at the top of five poorest countries in the list. The richest countries at the bottom five of the list remain unchanged from last year. Germany has climbed three and France two places, while UK is four places richer than last year at 168. United States has improved by one place in the corresponding time frame. South Asian Perspective Both Afghanistan and India are four places poorer than last year. Pakistan has improved its rating by one place and is now on 40 th place. Bangladesh retains its place as the 26 th poorest country of the world. While Afghanistan remains the poorest in the region to stand at 14 th position, Sri Lanka is the richest at 63 rd position Outlook 2018 Malawi is likely to remain the poorest country of the world even after 5 years. Gambia would take the 5 th position. Luxemburg would remain the richest country in the world, while Sweden is likely to replace Australia as the fifth richest country in the world in five years time. United States can improve by one degree only and United Kingdom by four places. Troubled Greece would climb three places to feature at 152. Data predicts that Pakistan is on its way to lose significant ground and would be 29 th poorest country in the world by 2018, next to Bangladesh at 28 th position with a possible improvement of two grades. India is expected to improve its place on the list by three grades to reach 41 st. Afghanistan is expected to continue the decline to reach the 10 th position on the list. Contacts Dunya News Islamabad Bureau: Plot number 11, Mauv Area, Near PID, Zero Point Islamabad Phone:92-344-444-0975 Dunya News Head Quarters: 8a Abbot Road Lahore, Pakistan Phone: Email: info@dunyatv.tv