2024 Top 10 Poorest Countries In The World

International News On The Poorest Countries – GlobalCurrent24.com Presents 2024 Top 10 Poorest Countries In The World

The world has enough money and resources to ensure that the whole human race can live comfortably. Yet individuals in Burundi, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic continue to live in abject poverty. For other plausible competitors for the unwelcome title of the world’s poorest country—Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen—years of protracted violence make it hard to even attempt an assessment due to a lack of trustworthy economic data.

The world’s poorest countries are determined by factors other than money. Poverty describes an economic state at a certain point in time, and it is such a multifaceted term that any ranking will be incomplete and unrepresentative. Furthermore, classifying the world’s poorest countries is not as straightforward as ranking overall wealth. Data are sometimes difficult to get in some of the most disadvantaged nations, and using the gross domestic product (GDP) as a ranking element does not account for the entirety of a country’s wealth.

So, for the sake of this ranking, we’ll look at the United Nations’ 2023-24 Human Development Index. This takes into consideration:

Gross National Income (GNI).
Life Expectancy at Birth
Expected and average years of education
UN’s HDI value

Furthermore, the UN’s HDI rating now factors for “planetary pressure”—aka the consequences of climate change. It is never a full picture, but it provides a more intersectional view of how we may approach ranking nations based on poverty.

Top 10 Poorest Countries In The World – Full Lists

10. Sierra Leone

After more than a decade of combat, Sierra Leone’s civil war came to an end in 2002. While the country saw a relatively easy transition to peace, the repercussions of fighting on poverty and development persist, as do more recent crises like as the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak, an upsurge in natural catastrophes, and the Covid pandemic. After years of economic development, the World Bank reported a significant spike in inflation rates between 2021 and 2022 (11.9% and 27.2%, respectively). This is reflected in the country’s poverty rates. In Sierra Leone, an estimated 26% of the population lives below the international poverty line, with the percentage rising to 60% in rural regions.

9. Burkina Faso

Political turmoil, violence, and climate change have left Burkina Faso facing the biggest humanitarian disaster in its history – one that has been mostly “forgotten” by western media. Conditions improved marginally in 2023, with inflation falling to 0.7% (from 14.1% in 2022) and the extreme poverty rate falling from 26.3% to 25.6%. However, the country’s natural resources are limited, and more than 40% of the Burkinabe population lives in poverty. The stability of the security situation is critical to long-term poverty reduction. Unfortunately, violence persisted through 2023 and into 2024.

8. Yemen

Yemen is the “poorest” country in the Middle East, with about 80% of the population living below the poverty line as a result of nearly a decade of fighting and the consequences of climate change. This is mostly owing to a frequent economic consequence of war: warfare causes economic contractions and inflation, while many people are left without a consistent job — and, by extension, pay. A UN-brokered truce in 2022 resulted in modest economic gains, but a ban on oil shipments in 2023 reversed that progress. Addressing the country’s historical economic inequities will be a cornerstone to achieving long-lasting peace.

7. Burundi

Burundi is a landlocked nation in East Africa that borders Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania. It is one of the world’s most densely inhabited countries, with almost 75% of the people living below the poverty line. Many are still recuperating from a violent civil war that ended in 2005, as well as grappling with the effects of climate change in a country that is 80% agricultural. The country experienced some economic growth in 2023 (2.7%) compared to 2022 (1.8%), and is expected to reach 3.8% this year, according to the World Bank, as part of a larger government commitment to debt consolidation and improving the economic outlook, with a long-term goal of “emerging country in 2040, developed country in 2060.”

6. Mali

Mali, Africa’s fourth-largest country, has a thriving trade post in its capital, Timbuktu. It shares borders with Burkina Faso (No. 9) and Niger (No. 4), and it now suffers many of the same security concerns as other Sahelian nations, as well as the effects of the climate catastrophe. Between national and regional violence during the previous 12 years and the long-term impacts of the epidemic, the country’s poverty rate has risen dramatically, with 90% of Malians living below the poverty line.

5. Chad

Despite a $4 billion pipeline connecting the country’s oil reserves to coastline ports, Chad remains one of the world’s poorest countries due to a lack of infrastructure and both local and regional violence. Over 42% of the population now lives below the national poverty level, while more than 35% live below the international poverty line ($2.15 per day). The later rate of extreme poverty has increased significantly during the previous five years. Sudan’s situation has exacerbated matters, with an extra 600,000 refugees expected to escape the adjacent strife by 2023. The humanitarian and economic situation in Chad will deteriorate if the war continues.

4. Niger

According to the World Bank, the number of people living below the international poverty line in Niger will rise by an estimated 1.1 million in 2023, implying that more than 52% of the country’s population presently lives on less than $2.15 a day. This is due to a combination of comparable problems shared by other Sahel nations, such as inter-factional strife, climate change, and an overall unstable economy left over from the country’s colonial past. (Niger, like many other African nations that were once European colonies, attained independence in 1960, but the decolonization process left its infrastructure and economy in unstable shape. Last year’s coup and subsequent sanctions put further strain on the most vulnerable Nigeriens through inflation and increased food expenses.

3. Central African Republic

After more than a decade of crises, the Central African Republic has yet to reap the benefits of peace. The violence continues and has hampered the country’s progress, with the World Bank stating that economic activity “ground to a complete halt” in 2022 due to heavy floods and fuel shortages. According to a World Bank assessment on poverty in the CAR published last year, which is the first in-depth study of its type, 70% of the population lives in extreme poverty. This is consistent with the living circumstances of the country’s 6.1 million residents, 90% of whom lack access to power.

2. South Sudan

Africa’s youngest country is also among the poorest: Since attaining independence in 2011, South Sudan has seen two episodes of civil war, with a current — shaky — peace agreement in place. Droughts and floods also pose a threat to the country’s growth, with 80% of the people living in poverty. 2024 will be a watershed moment for the country, with elections probably slated for December. This is an essential component of the country’s long-term stability, as well as stabilizing the economy, addressing other dangers to civilians, and helping families to develop sustainable lives and futures.

1. Somalia

Somalia has experienced a series of crises during the previous several decades, including severe droughts, violence, starvation, and poor government. Approximately 70% of Somalis live below the poverty line, with 90% living in “multidimensional poverty” – poverty defined by poverty, education rates, and access to infrastructure. The nation, along with Ethiopia and Kenya, was at the center of a recent multi-year drought crisis in the Horn of Africa, one of the worst the area has experienced in a century, and has suffered further losses as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak and the fighting in Ukraine. While GDP has grown in recent years, it has been modest, averaging 2% real GDP growth each year.