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Basic income cost calculator

What would a basic income cost in the Solomon Islands?

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Total cost per year

7.04 billion Solomon Islands dollars

about 846 million US dollars

838,645 people × 700 Solomon Islands dollars a month × 12 months

Compared with

  • Government expense (central) (2022)167%
  • Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)190%
  • Tax revenue (central government) (2024)208%
  • GDP (nominal) (2025)48.4%
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The Solomon Islands in numbers

The Solomon Islands has a population of 838,645 (2025) and a GDP of 14.6 billion Solomon Islands dollars (about 1.75 billion US dollars) in 2025.

Paying everyone 700 Solomon Islands dollars a month would cost 7.04 billion Solomon Islands dollars a year (about 846 million US dollars), or 48.4% of GDP. That equals 167% of central government expense (2022), 190% of its revenue (2024), and 208% of its tax revenue (2024).

Children only (under 18: 359,294) would cost 3.02 billion Solomon Islands dollars a year (20.7% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 479,351), 4.03 billion Solomon Islands dollars (27.6%).

Default amount: 700 Solomon Islands dollars a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Solomon Islands dollars 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
GDP
World Bank: GDP in current local currency (NY.GDP.MKTP.CN) and in current US dollars (NY.GDP.MKTP.CD), 2025
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.

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