Top poorest countries in the world.

As cliché as it may be, many believe that money
makes the world go round. Upon second thought,
this notion really doesn’t seem to be too
farfetched at all. In general, some of the most
powerful people in the world tend to be the
richest ones, and some of the richest people in
the world tend to become some of the most
powerful. Whether an accurate unit of
measurement or not, a multitude of people
around the world will end up defining their
success through the money they’ve made
throughout their lives. If not anything else,
money is an easy unit of measurement to work
with because it’s probably the only directly
quantifiable measure of success there is.
With all of being said, quite possibly the only
thing as powerful as having money, is lacking it.
There is such an obvious disparity between rich
and poor all over the world. Furthermore, even
the definition of the word “poor” is relative to the
context and location. Having money can surge a
nation forward, while not having it can hold a
nation back. To see just exactly how powerful
this is, here are the Top 10 Poorest Countries in
the World.

10 – Guinea (GDP per capita of $523.10)
Typically, the wealth of a country is measured by
its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita,
which is the purchasing power of all goods and
services produced in a country, divided by its
population. In essence, this defines the
purchasing power of a single person within the
country. To begin this list is Guinea, with a GDP
per capita of $523.10. Guinea hasn’t seen a
period of economic stability since the 1990’s,
when their mining and agricultural industries did
them well. Since then however, Guinea has fallen
victim to sever sociopolitical crises, which
rapidly decayed the state of their economy.
Much of their economy is still largely based on
agriculture, which is difficult because farmers
only have access to outdated information and
obsolete technology, as investors tend to shy
away from the nation entirely.

9 – Ethiopia (GDP per capita of $505.00)
Interestingly enough, Ethiopia has historically
been a relatively wealthy nation. Although today,
and throughout recent years, this really hasn’t
been the case. To its credit, Ethiopia
theoretically has the right practices in place.
They’ve been undergoing a large political reform,
one of the benefits of which is the supposed
facilitation of economic growth and stability. In
fact, since 2007, Ethiopia has places itself above
many sub-Saharan African nations in terms of its
economic performance. Although regardless of
this, it remains one of the poorest nations in the
world, only holding a GDP per capita of $505.00.
This is a result of Ethiopia’s large population, and
dependence on a poorly funded, underdeveloped,
and vulnerable agricultural industry as a staple in
their economy.

8 – The Gambia (GDP per capita of $488.60
Next on the list is The Gambia, both one of the
African continent’s smallest and
poorest nations. With an area of roughly 11,000
square kilometers, and a population of roughly
1.8 million people, The Gambia struggles
immensely with trying to make economic leaps
forward. Although there are multiple factors to
consider, what is likely their biggest hindrance is
the lack of diversity within their economic
system. The Gambia relies primarily, and almost
solely, on farming and fishing to drive their
economy. Both of these are incredibly vulnerable
to poor weather conditions. It also doesn’t help
that the soil fertility of the farming land is
typically low, further decreasing both the quantity
and quality of seasonal yields. These alone
causes several ripple effects towards their
economy and the subsequent living conditions
that the people of the nation have to endure.
With a GDP per capita of $488.60, and over half
of the population living well under the poverty
line, the people of The Gambia are subject to
such a poor standard of living that the nation
falls into a “hunger season” when rainfall is at its
peak.

7 – Democratic Republic of the Congo (GDP per
capita of $484.20
Directly juxtaposing the previous entry in the list,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo is Africa’s
second largest country, holding a staggering
population of roughly 77 million people. A large
population isn’t always a good thing however, as
(especially with poorer nations) this just means
there is less money to go around. What is even
more intriguing about this case, however, is the
fact that the Democratic Republic of the Congo
is actually very rich in valuable natural
resources. Similarly, the land expands over 2.35
million square kilometers, much of which is
forests, although it also holds a great expanse of
farmable lands and waters. In spite of all of
these things, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo has been subject to a very unstable,
corrupt political system that has been holding
back the potential of the nation’s wealth
drastically. As a result of this, with a GDP per
capita of $484.20, a large portion of the nation’s
people remain unemployed, and their lack of
money thus results in their living within greatly
inadequate living conditions.

6 – Madagascar (GDP per capita of $463.00
Although this remains a list of the world’s
poorest nations, some of the nations on this list
are actually making progress in securing
economic stability for themselves. Madagascar,
unfortunately, is not one of these countries. Over
the last 20 years, the standard of living within
this island country has declined significantly.
With a population of more than 20 million people,
Madagascar has a GDP per capita of $463.00,
with about 70 percent of the nation’s people
living under the poverty line. Once again reliant
primarily on agriculture, the vulnerability of the
industry, lack of potent farming land, and the
growing population only make their economic
situation worse and worse over time.

5 – Liberia (GDP per capita of $454.30)
The Second Liberian Civil war was a conflict
within Liberia that lasted from 1999 all the way
through 2003. A quick look at history will show
that wars generally don’t leave involved nations
economically intact as a result. Liberia is no
exception to this. Having just been subject to a
14 year-long political conflict that not only
ravaged lands, but also needed to make use of
some of Liberia’s already finite resources, the
nation was left economically crumbled by the
civil war. It is also of no benefit that Liberia is,
once again, primarily reliant on agriculture to
drive its economy. The GDP per capita of the
war-torn nation stands at $454.30, and in 2010, it
was estimated that more than 80 percent of the
nation’s people were living less with less than
$1.25 per day. With low yields due to old farming
technologies, as well as having overall poor
infrastructure, Libera only marks the halfway
point down this list of the poorest countries in
the world.

4 – Niger (GDP per capita of $415.40)
Aside from being one of the world’s poorest,
Niger stands as one of the world’s most
underdeveloped nations across several
categories. Although it continues to make
developments in reducing infant mortality, and
enhancing education, the development category
of poverty has unfortunately remained rather
stagnant, keeping the nation’s GDP per capita at
$415.40. Niger’s economy is driven by two main
forces: the extraction of valuable natural
resources available within the nation (including
gold, uranium, and even oil), and small-scale
agriculture. Unfortunately, both of these
economic sources can easily be devastated by
random shifts in climate and weather, and thus
Niger has struggled in developing themselves
economically.

3 – Central African Republic (GDP per capita of
$333.20)
Like Liberia, the Central African Republic has in
the past been victim to war and
significant political instability. The landlocked
central African nation also supports very, very
poor infrastructure, thus limiting the efficiency of
the distribution of the nation’s resources.
Furthermore, this nation also shares similarities
with most other African nations in that its
economy is mostly directed by agriculture,
although an estimated 45 percent of the Central
African Republic’s export revenues are from
diamonds. However, because of the poor
infrastructure and governance that the nation has
to deal with, only about 4 percent of the actual
arable land that the nation holds is actually used.
As a result, the majority of the working
population that works within the industry suffer
immensely, holding the nation to a GDP per
capita of $333.20.

2 – Burundi (GDP per capita of $267.10)
Having suffered from recurring violence and
political disputes, it is no surprise that Burundi
ranks as the second poorest nation in the world,
even though the country is working tirelessly to
rebuild itself. Aside from the estimated 300,000
civilian casualties resulting in a 67 percent
poverty rate, the violent political rivalries were
also detrimental to Burundi’s agricultural
development. Even now, the nation ravaged by
war holds very little farmable land, and any land
that may be used for small-scale farming is still
fragile due to the vulnerability to shifting
climates and weather conditions. With the
population growing rapidly, food prices rising, and
a GDP per capita of $267.10, Burundi places as
the second poorest country in the world.

1 – Malawi (GDP per capita of $226.50)
Holding a population of 16 million while also
being one of the smallest African nation doesn’t
set you up for accumulation or distribution of
wealth. Arguable the most underdeveloped nation
in the world, Malawi suffers greatly in essentially
all categories available. Access to education,
general standard of healthcare, infrastructure,
and quality of living conditions are all limited or
substandard. Because the nation is unable to
develop in general, they’re for all intents and
purposes stuck with trying to drive their economy
using only the most primitive levels of
agriculture. With common weather variations, as
well as injuries and fatalities facilitated by poor
health care, Malawi’s world lowest GDP per
capita of $226.50 doesn’t seem like it will be
rising too significantly any time soon.
Sometimes days may seem tough. Maybe things
just didn’t go the way you want, or perhaps
you’re frustrated with where your life stands
currently. While many may have perfectly valid
reasons for frustration, it is equally as important
to take moments everyday to appreciate the
reasons your life may be great. There’s privilege
to be seen everywhere, even in something so
simple as the internet connection required for
you to have read this article.