South Sudan

South Sudan: GDP Figure Dated a Decade Before Current Conditions

South Sudan's GDP was recorded at $12.00 billion in 2015, per World Bank WDI, with GDP per capita of $1,080.15, also 2015. Both figures are a decade old relative to the rest of this bundle and should be read strictly as a 2015 snapshot; they predate many subsequent developments and should not be assumed to describe the economy today. Population is more current, at 11,943,408 in 2024, per World Bank WDI.

Foreign reserves were $15.96 million in 2024, per World Bank WDI — a very small figure in absolute terms relative to the other countries reviewed in this set.

Government debt is projected at 57.3 percent of GDP in 2026, per the IMF's World Economic Outlook.

Defense spending came to $178.42 million in 2025, per SIPRI's Military Expenditure Database, or 3.425 percent of GDP by SIPRI's own GDP series for that year — one of the higher milex-to-GDP shares in this bundle's structure; this ratio should not be recalculated against the 2015 World Bank GDP figure above, as the two draw on entirely separate series and years. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset recorded 53,000 active personnel in 2022 and a Composite Index of National Capability score of 0.00083, also 2022.

V-Dem's 2025 release scores South Sudan at 0.133 on electoral democracy, 0.064 on liberal democracy, and 0.076 on state capacity — all among the lowest governance scores in this set.

Data gaps

The GDP series is the single largest gap in this bundle: both the dollar figure and per-capita figure are dated 2015, roughly a decade before every other metric here, and no more recent GDP figure is available. Energy data shows a similar split: primary energy consumption (0.0253 exajoules, 2023) and electricity generation (0.56 terawatt-hours, 2024) are reasonably current, per Our World in Data, and oil production (49.688 terawatt-hours, 2024) is current too, but gas production is listed as zero and dated to 2016. Given the age of the GDP figure, any income or living-standard assessment drawn from it should be treated with caution.

Sources: World Bank WDI, IMF WEO, SIPRI Milex, Correlates of War National Material Capabilities, V-Dem v15, Our World in Data (Energy).