What would a basic income cost in Zambia?
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Total cost per year
202 billion Zambian kwachas
about 8.06 billion US dollars
21.9 million people × 770 Zambian kwachas a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2021)111%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2024)119%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2024)148%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)27.9%
Zambia in numbers
Zambia has a population of 21.9 million (2025) and a GDP of 726 billion Zambian kwachas (about 28.9 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 770 Zambian kwachas a month would cost 202 billion Zambian kwachas a year (about 8.06 billion US dollars), or 27.9% of GDP. That equals 111% of central government expense (2021), 119% of its revenue (2024), and 148% of its tax revenue (2024).
Children only (under 18: 10.5 million) would cost 97.1 billion Zambian kwachas a year (13.4% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 11.4 million), 105 billion Zambian kwachas (14.5%).
Default amount: 770 Zambian kwachas a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Zambian 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), 2021, 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.