Benin

Benin: Moderate Debt Load Alongside Comparatively Firmer Institutions

Benin's economy reached $21.48 billion in gross domestic product for 2024, per World Bank WDI figures, with per-capita output of $1,485.38 the same year and a population of 14,462,724. Government debt stood at 57.2 percent of GDP in IMF WEO figures for 2026.

Military posture

SIPRI's 2025 Milex data recorded Beninese defense spending at $216.91 million, equivalent to 0.89 percent of GDP on SIPRI's own GDP series for that year — distinct from the World Bank GDP figure cited above, since the share is calculated against SIPRI's national accounts rather than the WDI series. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset recorded 12,000 active-duty personnel in 2022, with a Composite Index of National Capability (CINC) score of 0.00068307441 for the same year, a measure that aggregates demographic, industrial and military weight into a single index of relative state power.

Governance

V-Dem v15's 2025 scores put Benin's electoral democracy index at 0.493 and its liberal democracy index at 0.323, both roughly mid-range on the index's 0-to-1 scale and pointing to a political system with meaningful, if incomplete, competitive content. The state capacity index reached 0.77 for the same year, toward the upper end of the index's possible range, signaling substantial institutional reach.

Energy

Primary energy consumption totaled 0.0963 exajoules in 2023, per Our World in Data's energy series, and electricity generation reached 1.01 terawatt-hours in 2024. Both oil and gas production were recorded at zero terawatt-hours, though that reading carries a 2016 date, well before the other energy figures cited here.

Data gaps

The oil and gas production series is stale, dated 2016 against 2023-2024 dates for the rest of the energy figures, and should not be read as a current statement of zero output. No reserves series appears in this bundle for Benin, so the government debt figure above cannot be weighed against a measure of external liquidity. The governance indices, dated 2025, and the economic series, dated 2024 and 2026, otherwise carry recent reference years.

Sources: World Bank WDI, IMF WEO, SIPRI Milex, COW NMC, V-Dem v15, Our World in Data (Energy).