Benin is a coastal West African country with 14,462,724 residents in 2024, according to World Bank Benin data. Its recent profile combines rapid economic growth with continuing gaps in electricity, sanitation, internet access, and poverty reduction. The figures below identify the year, measurement basis, and source for each statistic so travelers and document researchers can interpret the country context accurately.
Contents
- Population and geography
- Economic scale and growth
- Poverty, inequality, and work
- Living conditions and digital access
- Education, health, and representation
- Environment and natural resources
Population and geography
World Bank Benin data recorded a population of 14,462,724 in 2024. A separate World Bank “by-the-numbers” page rounded the 2024 population to 14.5 million, while the 2024 Macro Poverty Outlook snapshot used 13.7 million. These are different published snapshots and should not be treated as one exact series without checking their underlying reference dates and definitions.
Population growth was 2.5% in 2024, according to World Bank Benin data. The same source reported a fertility rate of 5.7 children per woman in 2024. Net migration was -7,847 in 2025, meaning the reported number of people leaving or not entering exceeded the number entering under that measure.
Benin has 121 kilometers of coastline along the Gulf of Guinea, according to the World Bank Benin by-the-numbers page. This coastal geography is relevant when interpreting the country’s regional connections and travel routes, but the coastline figure does not describe the length of any particular road, border, or journey.
For a historical comparison, the World Bank Benin macro poverty outlook reported a population of 12.5 million in 2021. The difference between that 2021 snapshot and the various 2024 figures reflects different years and publication snapshots rather than a single directly calculated growth rate here.
Economic scale and growth
Benin’s gross domestic product was US$21.48 billion in 2024, while GDP per capita was US$1,485.4, according to World Bank Benin data. GDP growth was 7.5% in 2024. The World Bank Macro Poverty Outlook separately reported that the economy expanded 6.3% year-on-year in 2024Q1, so the quarterly rate and the full-year rate describe different periods.
The 2024 Macro Poverty Outlook snapshot reported GDP of US$18.5 billion in 2021 and GDP per capita of US$1,487.0 in 2021. Because these values come from a separate historical snapshot, they should be read as published reference figures rather than used to infer an unsupported change in living standards from the 2021 per-capita figure to the 2024 figure.
Inflation was 1.2% in 2024 in World Bank Benin data. The World Bank Macro Poverty Outlook reported inflation of 1.0% year-on-year in July 2024, another period-specific measure. Foreign direct investment net inflows were 2.5% of GDP in 2024, and personal remittances received were 1.7% of GDP in 2023.
| Indicator | Reported value | Period and source |
|---|---|---|
| GDP | US$21.48 billion | 2024, World Bank Benin data |
| GDP growth | 7.5% | 2024, World Bank Benin data |
| GDP growth | 6.3% year-on-year | 2024Q1, World Bank Macro Poverty Outlook |
| GDP per capita | US$1,485.4 | 2024, World Bank Benin data |
| Inflation | 1.2% | 2024, World Bank Benin data |
| Unemployment | 1.6% | 2025, World Bank Benin data |
Unemployment was 1.6% in 2025, according to World Bank Benin data. The low reported unemployment rate is a labor-market indicator; it does not by itself describe earnings, job quality, informality, or the share of people outside the labor force.
Poverty, inequality, and work
The poverty figures use different thresholds, so their percentages are not interchangeable. World Bank Benin data reported that 27.2% of the population was below the $3.00-a-day poverty line in 2021. The 2024 Macro Poverty Outlook snapshot reported a 2021 international poverty rate of 19.2% at $1.90 a day, a lower-middle-income poverty rate of 51.3% at $3.20 a day, and an upper-middle-income poverty rate of 79.3% at $5.50 a day.
These thresholds produce different population shares because they define poverty at different daily income levels. The 2024 Macro Poverty Outlook also projected poverty below $4.20 a day at 13.2% in 2024. That value is a projection, not a measured 2024 outcome, and it should remain distinct from the 2021 observed or reported poverty figures.
The Gini index was 37.8 in 2021 in the World Bank Benin macro poverty outlook. The 2024 Macro Poverty Outlook snapshot reported a Gini index of 34.4. Since the two values belong to different published snapshots and periods, they indicate separate inequality measurements rather than a calculation of an exact intervening trend.
Agriculture contributed about 27% of GDP in 2000, according to a World Bank Benin macro outlook snippet. This is a legacy figure from 2000 and has not been independently verified here; it should not be presented as agriculture’s current share of the economy.
Female labor force participation among people aged 25 and older was 68% in 2023, according to the World Bank Human Capital Country Brief. The same brief continued to track the indicator for young people not in employment, education, or training, but the supplied source information did not provide a percentage for that measure.
Living conditions and digital access
Access to electricity reached 57.0% of the population in 2023, according to World Bank Benin data. Safely managed sanitation services covered 16% of the population in 2024. Together, these figures show why national infrastructure statistics need to be read separately: electricity access and safely managed sanitation measure different services and use different years.
Individuals using the internet represented 34% of the population in 2024. This is a population share, not a measure of connection speed, reliability, device ownership, or the availability of online government and travel-document services.
The 2024 Macro Poverty Outlook reported gross primary school enrollment of 113.0% in its 2024 snapshot. The same source reported 114.2% for 2021. Gross enrollment can exceed 100% because it counts enrolled pupils without limiting the numerator to the official age group, so these values should not be read as attendance rates or as the percentage of children completing primary school.
The World Bank Human Capital Country Brief reported that 85% of children one year younger than the official primary entry age participated in organized learning in 2018. The corresponding figure was 88% in 2016. These are participation figures for specified years and age definitions, not current enrollment estimates.
Education, health, and representation
Life expectancy at birth was 61 years in 2024 in World Bank Benin data. The World Bank Benin by-the-numbers page gave a more precise 2024 value of 61.2 years and stated that it was up 0.5 years from 60.7 in 2023. The 2024 Macro Poverty Outlook snapshot reported life expectancy of 60.0 years. These published values come from distinct source presentations, so the precision and snapshot should be retained rather than blended.
Women held 27% of parliamentary seats in 2025, according to World Bank Benin data. This is a representation measure for parliament and does not describe women’s share of the total population, workforce, or cabinet.
Benin’s statistical performance indicators overall score was 71.0 in 2024, according to World Bank Benin data. The score is an assessment of statistical-system performance and should not be interpreted as a percentage of residents, a literacy rate, or a measure of economic growth.
The World Bank Human Capital Country Brief’s organized-learning figures were 88% in 2016 and 85% in 2018 for children one year younger than the official primary entry age. Because the supplied information does not give a later percentage, no current trend is inferred from those two observations.
Intentional homicides were reported at 1 per 100,000 people in 2017 in World Bank Benin data. This is an older, explicitly dated safety statistic. It should not be used as a current crime estimate or as a prediction of conditions in a particular city, border area, or travel route.
Environment and natural resources
Forest area was 26.5% of land area in 2023, according to World Bank Benin data. Annual freshwater withdrawals were 1% of internal resources in 2022. The freshwater figure is a ratio of withdrawals to internal resources, not the share of the population with drinking-water access.
Carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions excluding land use, land-use change, and forestry were 0.5 tonnes per capita in 2024. The World Bank Macro Poverty Outlook’s 2024 snapshot separately reported total greenhouse-gas emissions of 26.5 MtCO2e. The per-capita and total-emissions figures use different forms of measurement and should not be converted here without a defined population and methodology.
Renewable electricity production excluding hydroelectric power was 0.3% of total electricity output in 2021. The exclusion of hydroelectric production matters: this statistic covers a narrower renewable-electricity category and does not represent all renewable energy in Benin.
The country’s 121 kilometers of Gulf of Guinea coastline, the 26.5% forest-area share, and the 0.5 tonnes of CO2e per-capita emissions figure describe geography, land cover, and emissions respectively. They are useful background statistics for travel planning and country research, but none independently measures environmental conditions at a particular destination or on a particular date.