What would a basic income cost in Bhutan?
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Total cost per year
18.2 billion Bhutanese ngultrums
about 208 million US dollars
796,682 people × 1,900 Bhutanese ngultrums a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2020)24.2%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2020)29.1%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2020)47.4%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)5.8%
Bhutan in numbers
Bhutan has a population of 796,682 (2025) and a GDP of 312 billion Bhutanese ngultrums (about 3.58 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 1,900 Bhutanese ngultrums a month would cost 18.2 billion Bhutanese ngultrums a year (about 208 million US dollars), or 5.8% of GDP. That equals 24.2% of central government expense (2020), 29.1% of its revenue (2020), and 47.4% of its tax revenue (2020).
Children only (under 18: 201,243) would cost 4.59 billion Bhutanese ngultrums a year (1.5% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 595,439), 13.6 billion Bhutanese ngultrums (4.4%).
Default amount: 1,900 Bhutanese ngultrums a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Bhutanese ngultrums with the World Bank's PPP conversion factor for household consumption (2025) and rounded to two significant figures. It is a reference point, not a policy proposal; change it above.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- Population
- World Bank: population, total (SP.POP.TOTL), and population by single year of age 0 to 17 (SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN), 2025
- SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN
- Government expense and tax revenue
- World Bank: central government expense, revenue excluding grants and tax revenue, % of GDP (GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS, GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS, GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2020
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- World Bank: PPP conversion factor, household final consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP), 2025
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.