What would a basic income cost in Ethiopia?
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Total cost per year
4.06 trillion Ethiopian birrs
about 34 billion US dollars
135 million people × 2,500 Ethiopian birrs a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2023)440%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)661%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)792%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)26.9%
Ethiopia in numbers
Ethiopia has a population of 135 million (2025) and a GDP of 15.1 trillion Ethiopian birrs (about 126 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 2,500 Ethiopian birrs a month would cost 4.06 trillion Ethiopian birrs a year (about 34 billion US dollars), or 26.9% of GDP. That equals 440% of central government expense (2023), 661% of its revenue (2024), and 792% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 61.5 million) would cost 1.84 trillion Ethiopian birrs a year (12.2% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 74 million), 2.22 trillion Ethiopian birrs (14.7%).
Default amount: 2,500 Ethiopian birrs a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Ethiopian birrs 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), 2023, 2024
- 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.