What would a basic income cost in Madagascar?
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Total cost per year
47.1 trillion Malagasy ariaries
about 10.4 billion US dollars
32.7 million people × 120,000 Malagasy ariaries a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2023)481%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)434%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)485%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)53.0%
Madagascar in numbers
Madagascar has a population of 32.7 million (2025) and a GDP of 88.9 trillion Malagasy ariaries (about 19.6 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 120,000 Malagasy ariaries a month would cost 47.1 trillion Malagasy ariaries a year (about 10.4 billion US dollars), or 53.0% of GDP. That equals 481% of central government expense (2023), 434% of its revenue (2024), and 485% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 14.9 million) would cost 21.5 trillion Malagasy ariaries a year (24.1% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 17.8 million), 25.7 trillion Malagasy ariaries (28.9%).
Default amount: 120,000 Malagasy ariaries a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Malagasy ariaries 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.