Zambia

Zambia

Zambia's economy generated $25.3 billion in gross domestic product in 2024, per World Bank WDI figures, with GDP per capita at $1,187.11 across a population of 21,314,956 the same year. Government debt stood at 86.0% of GDP in 2025, according to IMF WEO projections, a level that constrains fiscal room for other priorities. Reserves were reported at $4.09 billion in 2024 (World Bank WDI).

Military and power indicators

SIPRI's 2025 military expenditure data put Zambian defense spending at $405.86 million, equivalent to 1.26% of GDP on SIPRI's own GDP series — a figure drawn from SIPRI's dataset, not the World Bank GDP cited above, and the two should not be divided against each other. The Correlates of War National Material Capabilities (COW NMC) dataset lists 15,000 active military personnel as of 2022 and a composite index of national capability (CINC) score of 0.0010320544 for the same year.

Governance

V-Dem v15's 2025 scores place Zambia's electoral democracy index at 0.497 and its liberal democracy index at 0.375, with a state capacity score of 0.654. These sit in the middle of V-Dem's 0-to-1 scales, without further context from other series in this bundle to characterize trend or trajectory.

Energy

Zambia's primary energy consumption was 0.1807 exajoules in 2023, and electricity generation reached 19.72 terawatt-hours in 2024, both per Our World in Data's energy series. Oil and gas production are both listed at zero terawatt-hours, but that figure dates to 2016 — a decade-old data point that should not be read as a current statement of Zambia's energy-production status.

Taken together, the fiscal and military figures point to a government carrying substantial debt (86.0% of GDP, IMF WEO 2025) alongside comparatively modest defense spending (1.26% of GDP, SIPRI 2025), with reserves of $4.09 billion (World Bank WDI 2024) available to manage external pressures. The governance scores — electoral democracy at 0.497, liberal democracy at 0.375, state capacity at 0.654, all V-Dem v15, 2025 — describe a political system in the middle range of V-Dem's scales rather than at either extreme.

Data gaps

The oil and gas production figures are stale, carrying a 2016 reference year against 2023-2025 data elsewhere in this bundle; no more recent production series is available here. No separate inflation, trade-balance, or arms-transfer data appears in this fact set. The milex/GDP ratio should be read only against SIPRI's internal GDP accounting, not against the World Bank's $25.3 billion topline figure. No current oil- or gas-production figures exist to update the 2016 zeros, so Zambia's present-day hydrocarbon output cannot be stated from this bundle.

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