What would a basic income cost in the Marshall Islands?
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Total cost per year
39.6 million US dollars
36,282 people × 91 US dollars a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2020)21.6%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2020)41.1%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2020)75.0%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)12.9%
The Marshall Islands in numbers
The Marshall Islands has a population of 36,282 (2025) and a GDP of 308 million US dollars in 2025.
Paying everyone 91 US dollars a month would cost 39.6 million US dollars a year, or 12.9% of GDP. That equals 21.6% of central government expense (2020), 41.1% of its revenue (2020), and 75.0% of its tax revenue (2020).
Children only (under 18: 15,174) would cost 16.6 million US dollars a year (5.4% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 21,108), 23 million US dollars (7.5%).
Default amount: 91 US dollars a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day, converted into US dollars at the exchange rate implied by the World Bank's GDP in local currency and in US dollars (2025), because there is no recent PPP conversion factor, 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
- 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.