What would a basic income cost in Malawi?
Pick a country, who gets it and how much a month. Everything is calculated on this device; nothing is sent anywhere.
Total cost per year
15.2 trillion Malawian kwachas
about 8.68 billion US dollars
22.2 million people × 57,000 Malawian kwachas a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2022)288%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)365%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)373%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)58.2%
Malawi in numbers
Malawi has a population of 22.2 million (2025) and a GDP of 26.1 trillion Malawian kwachas (about 14.9 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 57,000 Malawian kwachas a month would cost 15.2 trillion Malawian kwachas a year (about 8.68 billion US dollars), or 58.2% of GDP. That equals 288% of central government expense (2022), 365% of its revenue (2024), and 373% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 10.5 million) would cost 7.21 trillion Malawian kwachas a year (27.6% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 11.7 million), 7.99 trillion Malawian kwachas (30.6%).
Default amount: 57,000 Malawian kwachas a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Malawian kwachas 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), 2022, 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.