Top 10 African Countries That Have Gone From Low-Income to Middle-Income Economies
Low-income countries (LICs) included 63 emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) in 2000. The number since then has changed significantly, with more African countries emerging as middle-income economies.
In the early 2000s, 63 countries were home to more than 60% of the 1.8 billion people who lived in extreme poverty.
Of those nations, 39 have advanced to middle-income rank since then.
However, the pace at which LICs are moving up the income ladder has significantly slowed in recent years, due to worsening internal and international circumstances, according to a report from the World Bank.
As of 2023, twenty-four nations that were LICs at the beginning of the century still have yearly per capita incomes below $1,145.
“Across a wide spectrum of development indicators, today’s LICs are worse off than LICs in 2000 that subsequently attained middle-income status,” the report states.
“In 2024, these 26 countries, concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa, comprised more than 40 percent of people living in extreme poverty globally. Making progress on eliminating extreme poverty, therefore, depends crucially on accelerating progress in LICs,” it adds.
This is because the economic challenges that LICs face have worsened in the past 15 years, as a result of deadly wars and violence, climatic shocks, debt crises, and weak development.
Since 2010, yearly per capita growth in today’s LICs has averaged less than 0.1 percent, indicating 15 years of squandered opportunity.
Nevertheless, several African countries have leaped from LICs to middle-income countries based on their current Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, as per the World Bank’s report.
Below are the top 10 African countries that have made this leap, which currently have the highest GNIs of the bunch.
| Rank | Country | GNI per capita in 2000 | Latest GNI per capita |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Equatorial Guinea | $680 | $5,240 |
| 2. | Côte d’Ivoire | $640 | $2,670 |
| 3. | São Tomé and Principe | $480 | $2,480 |
| 4. | Congo, Rep. | $560 | $ 2,470 |
| 5. | Ghana | $ 330 | $2,340 |
| 6. | Mauritania | $710 | $ 2,150 |
| 7. | Angola | $360 | $2,130 |
| 8. | Kenya | $430 | $2,110 |
| 9. | Nigeria | $1,930 | |
| 10. | Zimbabwe | $360 | $1,740 |
