The prosperity gap in some African countries refers to the stark differences in economic well-being among African countries, regions, and social groups. These disparities are seen in GDP per capita, access to essential services, infrastructure development, and overall quality of life.
The prosperity gap, which is the average factor by which incomes need to be multiplied to bring everyone in the world to the prosperity standard of $25 per person per day, has stopped gaining since the pandemic due to a reduction in economic growth and a divergence in mean incomes across countries.
According to the World Bank’s Poverty, Prosperity, and Planet Report 2024, the prosperity gap is roughly equal to the average income when countries reach high-income status.
“Between 1990 and 2024, the Global Prosperity Gap improved at an annual rate of 2.3 percent, with global mean income increasing at a yearly rate of 1.48 percent and global inequality declining by 0.86 percent.
The changes in the Global Prosperity Gap can be exactly decomposed into growth in mean income and changes in inequality,” the report states.
Most high-inequality economies are found in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa, even though the number of economies with high inequality globally has fallen.
“Within Sub-Saharan Africa, inequality is highest in Southern and Central Africa,” as per the report.
High inequality signifies a shortage of social mobility, which might impede long-term possibilities for poverty reduction and shared prosperity.
In the same breath, social cohesiveness and political and social stability are positively connected with reduced inequality.
“In countries where levels of income or consumption inequality are higher, an increase in growth results in a smaller reduction in poverty (Bourguignon 2003),” the World Bank report states.
Simulations suggest that decreasing inequality can have a major influence on lowering poverty.
“Improvement inequality has also been a missed opportunity for poverty reduction (Sinha, Inchauste, and Narayan 2024) in a region where many countries have abnormally high levels of inequality,” the report adds.
With that said, here are the African countries with the most excess gap due to the current level of inequality.
Top 10 African countries with the most excess prosperity gap due to inequality
| Rank | Country | Inequality index |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Madagascar | 27.32 |
| 2. | Democratic Republic of Congo | 25.97 |
| 3. | Mozambique | 25.16 |
| 4. | South Sudan | 22.44 |
| 5. | Zambia | 23.06 |
| 6. | Central African Republic | 19.95 |
| 7. | Malawi | 18.70 |
| 8. | Burundi | 16.34 |
| 9. | Rwanda | 14.04 |
| 10. | Niger | 12.64 |
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