The World Bank's World Development Indicators have shown which countries will be the poorest in the world in 2022(WDI). Most, if not all, of the 25 poorest countries are thought of as developing countries.
Gross domestic product (GDP) and gross domestic income (GDI) per person are much lower than in other countries where people have more money to spend.
Poverty then makes it hard to get an education, clean water and food, a place to live, and many other things that people need to live. In these places, millions of people live below the poverty line.
It is a scary problem that the UN has talked about many times over the years. It seems like an impossible problem to even start to solve, let alone fix, but what people can do, they can also fix.
There is still hope for these countries because many developing countries around the world are now getting help from emerging markets.
Poverty in Countries Around the World
In a world where money determines your status and whether you can meet your basic needs, being poor means just getting by, not living. Some of the richest people in the world live in places like the United States, but billions can't afford to eat three meals a day.
This is a sad fact for the many countries whose economies grow slowly and often stay the same for a number of reasons. The difference in income and wealth is shocking. When you consider that the U.S. has a per capita GNI of about $55,000.
You can see that these poor countries barely make it on a GNI of $2,000 or less. Even though services and goods are much cheaper in these countries, their quality of life is still hurt by the fact that they don't make enough money to live on.
The World's Poorest Countries
The GNI is a way to figure out how much money a country makes. Gross national income, or GNI, is a country's total income divided by the number of people living there. It tells how much economic activity is going on based on how much money was spent to make the goods and services that make up the GDP.
It is usually changed to U.S. dollars so that rates of exchange and comparisons can be made around the world. Low-income countries, according to the World Bank, are those where each person makes less than $1,026 a year.
During the pandemic, the world economy took a hit, but some countries were hit harder than others. Here are 10 of the world's poorest countries in the year 2022.
10. Afghanistan
GNI per capita: $1,647
People tend to think of Afghanistan as a country that is always at war. Due to civil and political unrest in the country, it has been hard to make investments and progress in the economy that make sense.
Since the 9/11 attacks on U.S. soil, the U.S. military has stayed in the country forcibly. Even now, insurgent forces still pose a threat to the stability of the country.
9. Sierra Leone
GNI per capita: $1,348
Sierra Leone has a lot of natural resources, just like the other countries in West Africa. Unfortunately, the diamonds and minerals had led to a civil war that killed thousands of people over many years.
Their corrupt government has also done almost nothing to change the fact that they are poor. The country was also one of the places where the Ebola epidemic hurt the most.
8. Madagascar
GNI per capita: $1,339
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world. It is in East Africa. It has so much wildlife that it has been the subject of many Hollywood movies and documentaries. But tourism is not enough to keep the country going.
Most of the people who live there depend on farming and agriculture, but because of where they live, they are vulnerable to bad weather. In the past few years, the country has also been hit by violent coups and corruption.
7. Mozambique
GNI per capita: $1,100
Locals have always been able to get water, natural gas, and arable land from the area that used to be a Portuguese colony. But a civil war that lasted for 15 years and ended in 1992, extreme weather, and political instability continue to hold the country back.
Since 2017, Islamic insurgent groups have also been terrorizing their northern areas. But a recent investment by France worth billions gives people hope for a better future.
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6. Liberia
GNI per capita: $1,078
The oldest country in Africa is still struggling with poverty and has been on lists like these for the longest time. Some peace and stability have come with the end of the civil war in 2003, but not enough to get people out of poverty.
The Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014 did not help the situation, which was made worse by corrupt government bodies that did not take care of the needs of their people.
5. Malawi
GNI per capita: $1,604
In Malawi, it is hard to believe that more than 70% of the people live on less than $1.90 a day. Malawi is like many other poor countries in that it depends a lot on agriculture.
Farming is the main way that many families in the country make money. The constant spread of viral diseases like HIV has also had a big effect on the population and death rate of the country.
4. Niger
GNI per capita: $906
Niger only got its independence from France in 1960, which hurt its economy a lot. Over 80% of their people live in rural areas that don't have electricity or other important things like hospitals.
The country has had a lot of political instability and coups for a long time. People who live in cities often also live in the slums. Even so, the country's economy grew by 4.9 percent in 2017, which was a lot.
3. Democratic Republic of Congo (DCR)
GNI per capita: $796
Copper, diamonds, and other minerals are found in great quantities in the DRC. But the civil wars that are still going on in the country have killed and moved more than 6 million people. The country's economic growth is also slowing down because of corruption and a lack of basic infrastructure.
2. Burundi
GNI per capita: $686
In 1994, the Tutsi and the Hutu people fought a brutal 12-year civil war that set the country back for many years. The fact that Burundi's government is one of the most corrupt in the world doesn't make things better.
Less than 10% of the country's people have access to electricity, and even less have access to the internet and modern technology.
1. The Central African Republic
GNI per capita: $663
The Central African Republic has the world's lowest gross national income (GNI). This could have been because the country had been colonized for a long time.
They only got their independence from France in 1960, so it hasn't been that long. Since then, the country has been torn apart by things like coups, religious violence, and crooked government officials.
What is the Cause of Poverty in the Poorest Countries in the World?
Many, if not most, of the people in the poorest countries on this list have been poor for a long time. These things still hold back their economic growth and have done so for many generations.
Political instability, war, conflict, colonialism, capitalism, national debt, social unrest, hostile neighboring countries, and sometimes extreme weather and land conditions.
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Some developing countries have been stuck in these “cycles of poverty” for hundreds of years. If you don't deal with even one of the main causes of poverty in a country, you can't solve the rest of the problems.
For example, if the lack of education among children isn't fixed, the country's future workforce will have a higher rate of illiteracy. This will make some markets and industries less likely to invest in the country.
How Can a Country That is Still Developing Its Economy Get Better?
It is hard to point to just one reason why people are poor. Most of the time, it is a mix of all of the above and more. Even so, no one can deny that with good leadership and an honest government, a poor country has a good chance of getting out of poverty.
Many countries that were once called “third world” are now doing better than anyone could have imagined. All of this is because of good leadership and changed systems. But it's important to keep in mind that developing countries have a lot of potentials.
They have a lot of room for their economies to grow if richer countries would invest in their markets. People are worth investing in, so each citizen's basic needs like housing, food, and education must be met.
Addressing other important problems in these countries, like colonialism and war, would also be a good place to start. When a country is declared independent and no longer at war, it is given a chance to do well.
