What would a basic income cost in Papua New Guinea?
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Total cost per year
32.3 billion Papua New Guinean kina
about 7.83 billion US dollars
10.8 million people × 250 Papua New Guinean kina a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2023)119%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)146%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)155%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)24.1%
Papua New Guinea in numbers
Papua New Guinea has a population of 10.8 million (2025) and a GDP of 134 billion Papua New Guinean kina (about 32.5 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 250 Papua New Guinean kina a month would cost 32.3 billion Papua New Guinean kina a year (about 7.83 billion US dollars), or 24.1% of GDP. That equals 119% of central government expense (2023), 146% of its revenue (2024), and 155% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 4.21 million) would cost 12.6 billion Papua New Guinean kina a year (9.4% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 6.55 million), 19.7 billion Papua New Guinean kina (14.7%).
Default amount: 250 Papua New Guinean kina a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Papua New Guinean kina 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.