I looked at the ranking of the poorest countries in the world by GDP per capita in 2025, and it’s truly striking. South Sudan is at the top with only $251 per person—it’s almost unbelievable. Next is Yemen at $417 and Burundi at $490. When you see these figures, you realize the scale of global economic inequalities.

Most of the poorest countries are in West and Central Africa. the DRC, Niger, Somalia, Nigeria—around $700 to $800. Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique—it follows the same pattern. In Asia, there are also struggling countries like Myanmar, Nepal, and Tajikistan, with GDP per capita between $1,000 and $1,500.

What’s interesting is that the question of which country is the poorest in the world doesn’t have a simple answer. It depends on the methodology and the period. But clearly, those at the bottom of the rankings face massive economic challenges. The data shows that Sub-Saharan Africa concentrates the majority of these countries experiencing economic difficulty.