Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea: Hydrocarbon Wealth Against Thin Institutional Readings

Equatorial Guinea's economy reached $12.77 billion in gross domestic product for 2024, per World Bank WDI figures, with per-capita output of $6,745.40 the same year against a population of 1,892,516. Government debt stood at 39.1 percent of GDP in IMF WEO figures for 2026, and reserves were recorded at $1.08 billion per World Bank WDI data for 2024.

Military posture

SIPRI's 2025 Milex data put defense spending at $120.73 million, equivalent to 0.898 percent of GDP on SIPRI's own GDP series for that year — a share calculated against SIPRI's national accounts, not the World Bank GDP figure cited above. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset recorded 1,000 active-duty personnel in 2022, with a Composite Index of National Capability (CINC) score of 0.00018371506 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 indicators show an electoral democracy index of 0.172 and a liberal democracy index of 0.047. The state capacity index stood at just 0.046 for the same year, close to the index's floor, pointing to acute constraints on institutional reach.

Energy

Primary energy consumption totaled 0.1063 exajoules in 2023, per Our World in Data's energy series, and electricity generation reached 1.49 terawatt-hours in 2024. Oil production was recorded at 50.439 terawatt-hours for 2024. Gas production was recorded at 62.949 terawatt-hours, but that figure carries a 2016 date, older than the oil production figure in the same bundle.

Data gaps

The gas production figure is stale, dated 2016 against the 2024 date on the oil production figure in the same energy series, and should not be read as a current measure of gas output. All governance indices in this bundle sit toward the low end of their respective ranges. The economic figures, dated 2024 and 2026, the military figures, dated 2022 and 2025, and the governance indices, dated 2025, otherwise carry recent reference years with no further gaps flagged.

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