Guyana

Guyana: Oil Output Surges Against a Small Defense Base

Guyana's economy reached $24.66 billion in gross domestic product for 2024, per World Bank WDI figures, with per-capita output of $29,675.24 the same year — against a population of just 831,087. Government debt stood at 29.2 percent of GDP in IMF WEO figures for 2026, and reserves were recorded at $1.01 billion per World Bank WDI data for 2024.

Military posture

SIPRI's 2025 Milex data put Guyanese defense spending at $247.64 million, equivalent to 0.991 percent of GDP on SIPRI's own GDP series for that year — a share calculated against SIPRI's national accounts rather than the World Bank GDP figure cited above. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset recorded 3,000 active-duty personnel in 2022, with a Composite Index of National Capability (CINC) score of 6.1068662e-05 for the same year.

Governance

V-Dem v15's 2025 indicators show an electoral democracy index of 0.515 and a liberal democracy index of 0.328, pointing to a political system with meaningful competitive content. The state capacity index stood at 0.52 for the same year, roughly mid-range on the index's 0-to-1 scale.

Energy

Primary energy consumption totaled 0.0401 exajoules in 2023, per Our World in Data's energy series, and electricity generation reached 1.38 terawatt-hours in 2024. Oil production, by contrast, was recorded at 357.681 terawatt-hours in 2024 — a figure that stands out starkly against the country's own electricity generation total for the same year, reflecting an export-oriented extraction sector rather than domestic power use. Gas production was recorded at zero terawatt-hours, though that reading carries a far older 2016 date.

Data gaps

The gas production figure is stale, dated 2016 against the 2024 date carried by the oil production figure in the same bundle, and should not be read as a current account of Guyana's gas sector. No personnel or capability figures beyond the 2022 COW NMC data appear in this bundle, so changes in troop numbers or relative power since that year cannot be assessed here. The governance indices, dated 2025, and the remaining economic and military figures, dated 2024 through 2026, otherwise carry recent reference years.

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