What would a basic income cost in Cambodia?
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Total cost per year
27.8 trillion Cambodian riels
about 6.94 billion US dollars
17.8 million people × 130,000 Cambodian riels a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2023)104%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2023)98.3%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2023)111%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)13.5%
Cambodia in numbers
Cambodia has a population of 17.8 million (2025) and a GDP of 206 trillion Cambodian riels (about 51.3 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 130,000 Cambodian riels a month would cost 27.8 trillion Cambodian riels a year (about 6.94 billion US dollars), or 13.5% of GDP. That equals 104% of central government expense (2023), 98.3% of its revenue (2023), and 111% of its tax revenue (2023).
Children only (under 18: 6.26 million) would cost 9.77 trillion Cambodian riels a year (4.7% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 11.6 million), 18.1 trillion Cambodian riels (8.8%).
Default amount: 130,000 Cambodian riels a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Cambodian riels 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
- 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.