What would a basic income cost in Vanuatu?
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Total cost per year
44.2 billion Vanuatu vatus
about 368 million US dollars
335,169 people × 11,000 Vanuatu vatus a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2023)102%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2023)112%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2023)165%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)27.2%
Vanuatu in numbers
Vanuatu has a population of 335,169 (2025) and a GDP of 163 billion Vanuatu vatus (about 1.35 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 11,000 Vanuatu vatus a month would cost 44.2 billion Vanuatu vatus a year (about 368 million US dollars), or 27.2% of GDP. That equals 102% of central government expense (2023), 112% of its revenue (2023), and 165% of its tax revenue (2023).
Children only (under 18: 148,076) would cost 19.5 billion Vanuatu vatus a year (12.0% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 187,093), 24.7 billion Vanuatu vatus (15.2%).
Default amount: 11,000 Vanuatu vatus a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Vanuatu vatus 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
- 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.