Nigeria, others rank top poorest African countries by GDP per capita in 2025

Nigeria, and other African countries have been ranked among the poorest countries in the world by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per Capita in 2025.

According to 2025 estimates from the International Monetary Fund, South Sudan ranks as the poorest country in the world, with a GDP per capita of just $251.

GDP per capita offers more than just a snapshot of a country’s economic output, it quietly speaks to the lived realities of its people.

In many African countries, it shows the ongoing struggle to translate rich potential into shared prosperity, where progress is often uneven and development gaps remain wide.

To put that into perspective, it’s less than what many people across the globe spend on groceries in a single month, a reminder of the deep inequalities that persist in our world.

Even more surprising, India, one of the world’s largest economies by total GDP, also makes the list, ranking as the 50th poorest country with a GDP per capita of $2,878. It’s a rare case where a global economic giant reveals just how unevenly wealth can be distributed, with high output overall but low income per person.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous and 4th largest, is in a similar boat, ranking 12th poorest with a GDP per capita of $807. Both cases show how large populations can mask the struggles of everyday citizens in the GDP-per-capita metric.

But the gap between the poorest and even the moderately poor countries is staggering.

South Sudan’s $251 per capita income is just a fraction, roughly one-eleventh, of India’s, despite both landing on the same list.