+ This article has been updated.
According to the World Bank’s Development Indicator’s Data, Equatorial Guinea is the only country on the African continent that is ranked as a high-income level country.
The countries are ranked according to their respective GNI per capita (Gross National Income), and the World Bank’s Atlas Method which accounts for fluctuations in exchange rates. In the simplest terms GNI measures income received by a country both domestically and from overseas. GNI per capita is the GNI divided by the mid-year population.
Equatorial Guinea, the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa, has a population of about 736,300 people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $17.70 billion, placing its GNI at a whooping $13,560. To give you some perspective, the GNI in neighborhing Cameroon is $1,170 and in Gabon it’s $10,040. The largest economies in Africa, Nigeria and South Africa, have GNI’s of only $2,490 and $7,400, respectively. These statistics place Equatorial Guinea among the ranks of other high-income level countries like the United States, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Rankings are misleading.
Equatorial Guinea is a small country with large oil and gas reserves and an economy that’s dominated by hydrocarbon production. Crude oil and crude petroleum account for 76% and 20% of the country’s exports. Together these commodities total over $10 billion dollars. (source).
Although ranked among some of the most prosperous countries in the world, Equatorial Guinea does not share the same economic indicators: while the average life expectancy for babies born in high-income level countries is, on average, 79 years old, Equatorial Guineans can only expect to live to be about 53 years old. This number while drastically low, is quite similar to that of other African countries (Nigeria, for example, only has a life expectancy of 52). There are only 736,000 people in the country, but a shocking 77% live at the poverty line, and most still live off of subsistence farming.
Take that in for a second.
Equatorial Guinea, the only country, out of the 54 countries on the entire continent of Africa, considered to be a high-income level country, ranked among the most developed countries in the world, has 77% of it’s population living at the poverty-line? This country out-ranked the thriving economies of South Africa and Nigeria, who each have GDP’s of $384 billion and $459 billion, respectively, (Equatorial Guinea has a GDP of $17.70 billion) and populations of 23% and 46% at the poverty line.
In terms of pure numbers, Equatorial Guinea is in fact a high-income country, but considering it’s economic indicators, what does this ranking really mean?
To find out more about the rankings click here: