Graph: Africa – Population and GDP

This graph shows the GDP and population of the African countries, as well as the GDP per capita (which is the gradient of each data point).

Data Source: World Bank

The chart might be useful in terms of thinking about which African countries are doing well economically to invest in – High GDP implies a strong economy; High Population implies a potential large domestic market; High GDP per capita implies a high spending power of the population (assuming the income gap is not too high, which may not be the case).

On these counts, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Angola and Morocco could be potential countries for investors to take another look at. Of course, there is the issue of corporate governance or political stability, which would be looked at in a subsequent post.

South Africa’s 2010 GDP (US$364bn) places it as the top African country with the highest GDP, but the 28^th country in the world. In terms of GDP per capita, South Africa (US$7,275) is ranked 66^th in the world. As a comparison, the 2010 GDP per capita for various countries are: US: US$47,199; France: US$39,640; Malaysia: US$8,373; China: US$4,428.

South Africa is not doing too badly on these counts.

Data Source: World Bank; Graph: Generated by me