What would a basic income cost in Lebanon?
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Total cost per year
372 trillion Lebanese pounds
about 4.16 billion US dollars
5.85 million people × 5.3 million Lebanese pounds a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2021)254%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)119%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)144%
- GDP (nominal) (2024)16.0%
Lebanon in numbers
Lebanon has a population of 5.85 million (2025) and a GDP of 2,320 trillion Lebanese pounds (about 26 billion US dollars) in 2024.
Paying everyone 5.3 million Lebanese pounds a month would cost 372 trillion Lebanese pounds a year (about 4.16 billion US dollars), or 16.0% of GDP. That equals 254% of central government expense (2021), 119% of its revenue (2024), and 144% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 1.82 million) would cost 116 trillion Lebanese pounds a year (5% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 4.03 million), 256 trillion Lebanese pounds (11.0%).
Default amount: 5.3 million Lebanese pounds a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Lebanese pounds 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), 2021, 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.