Bahamas

Bahamas: High Income Per Capita, Thin Security and Governance Data

The Bahamas recorded GDP of $15.83 billion in 2024, per World Bank WDI, with a population of 401,283 the same year and source. GDP per capita came to $39,455.45 in 2024 (World Bank WDI) — notably high relative to the other population-and-income figures reviewed in this set, reflecting the country's small population base.

Government debt is projected at 71.9 percent of GDP in 2026, per the IMF's World Economic Outlook. Foreign reserves stood at $2.63 billion in 2024, per World Bank WDI.

The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset recorded 2,000 active personnel in 2022 and a Composite Index of National Capability score of 0.0000455, also 2022 — among the smallest capability figures in this dataset's structure, consistent with the country's small population and the absence of a standing defense-expenditure figure described below.

Data gaps

Two entire categories of this bundle are empty. No SIPRI milex figure — neither dollar value nor percent-of-GDP share — is present for the Bahamas, so no defense-spending comparison can be made. Separately, the governance section of this bundle contains no V-Dem entries at all: no electoral democracy index, no liberal democracy index, and no state capacity score. Both gaps should be read as missing data, not as zero values or an implied absence of government or defense institutions.

Energy data is present but largely stale. Primary energy consumption was 0.044 exajoules in 2023 and electricity generation 2.25 terawatt-hours in 2024, both per Our World in Data's Energy dataset and reasonably current. Oil and gas production are both listed as zero and dated to 2016, nearly a decade old; this should be read as the latest available OWID entry for each rather than a current-year confirmation of zero production.

Taken together, this bundle supports a reasonably confident picture of the Bahamas' economic scale and income level, but offers no basis for assessing its governance quality or military posture, both of which require data this file does not contain.

Sources: World Bank WDI, IMF WEO, Correlates of War National Material Capabilities, Our World in Data (Energy).