Uganda

Uganda: Weak Governance Indicators Alongside Moderate Defense Spending

Uganda's GDP was $53.91 billion in 2024, per World Bank WDI, with a population of 50,015,092 the same year and source. GDP per capita came to $1,077.91 in 2024 (World Bank WDI).

Government debt is projected at 55.0 percent of GDP in 2026, per the IMF's World Economic Outlook — a moderate level. Foreign reserves were $3.48 billion in 2024, per World Bank WDI.

Defense spending reached $1.30 billion in 2025, per SIPRI's Military Expenditure Database, equivalent to 1.957 percent of GDP by SIPRI's own GDP series for that year — a comparatively high share relative to other figures in this bundle's structure; this ratio should not be recalculated against the 2024 World Bank GDP figure above, as the two draw on separate series. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities dataset recorded 45,000 active personnel in 2022 and a Composite Index of National Capability score of 0.00197, also 2022 — among the higher personnel counts reviewed in this set.

V-Dem's 2025 release scores Uganda at 0.253 on electoral democracy, 0.165 on liberal democracy, and 0.214 on state capacity — all low and clustered closely together, unlike some other countries in this set where state capacity diverges sharply from the democracy indices.

Data gaps

Energy figures are mixed in currency. Primary energy consumption was 0.1156 exajoules in 2023 and electricity generation 5.81 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 — and should be read as the latest available OWID entries rather than a current confirmation of zero hydrocarbon output.

All other figures in this bundle span 2022 to 2026 and are attributed to their respective years above; readers should not treat them as a single-year composite picture of Uganda's economy or security posture. The gap between the 2022 personnel and CINC figures and the 2025 milex figures is itself worth noting when comparing force size against spending.

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