Benin had 14,462,724 people in 2024, according to World Bank Data. The same source recorded $21.48 billion in current-dollar GDP, 7.453% GDP growth and 1.161% consumer-price inflation that year. These figures provide a broad context for understanding the country before using more specific indicators about travel, documents, services or everyday conditions.
Table of contents
- Population and settlement
- Economic performance and prices
- Employment, sectors and external flows
- Education, poverty and living conditions
- Health and demographic indicators
- Infrastructure, energy and environment
- Governance and World Bank commitments
Population and settlement
World Bank Data puts Benin’s 2024 population at 14,462,724. The World Bank Benin overview gives the same year’s population as 14.5 million. The difference is a matter of presentation and rounding: the detailed World Bank Data figure is stated to the individual, while the overview uses a rounded millions format.
Population growth was 2.462% in 2024. That rate helps explain why the total population is changing quickly even though the country has a relatively modest absolute population compared with many larger countries.
In 2024, 52.546% of Benin’s population lived in urban areas and 47.454% lived in rural areas, according to World Bank Data. In other words, the supplied World Bank figures describe a country with a slightly larger urban than rural population, while nearly half of residents remained rural.
The World Bank Benin overview reports a coastline of 121 kilometers. For readers planning travel or document-related arrangements, that is a useful geographic reference, but it does not by itself describe border rules, visa requirements, processing times or entry conditions.
Economic performance and prices
Benin’s GDP in current US dollars was $21.48 billion in 2024, and GDP per capita in current US dollars was $1,485.40. GDP growth was 7.453% in 2024 in World Bank Data. The World Bank Benin overview separately reports economic growth of 7.5% in 2024, a rounded presentation of the same reported period.
The overview says headline inflation fell to 1.1% in 2025. World Bank Data records consumer-price inflation of 1.161% in 2024. These measures refer to different years, so they should not be read as competing values for one period: the detailed inflation figure is for 2024, while the overview’s headline-inflation statement is for 2025.
| Indicator | Value | Measurement period | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|
| GDP, current US dollars | $21.48 billion | 2024 | World Bank Data |
| GDP per capita, current US dollars | $1,485.40 | 2024 | World Bank Data |
| GDP growth | 7.453% | 2024 | World Bank Data |
| Consumer-price inflation | 1.161% | 2024 | World Bank Data |
| Headline inflation | 1.1% | 2025 | World Bank Benin overview |
The purchasing-power-parity conversion factor for GDP was 203.098 local currency units per international dollar in 2024. Gross savings were 30.155% of GDP in 2023. Household and nonprofit-institution final consumption expenditure equaled 58.883% of GDP in 2024, while gross capital formation equaled 35.062% of GDP.
Employment, sectors and external flows
Services accounted for 48.880% of GDP in 2024, agriculture for 24.232% and industry for 17.384%, according to World Bank Data. The sector shares do not add to 100% because the supplied indicators cover the named sectors but do not provide a complete residual breakdown.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing value added grew 7.453% in 2024. Industry value added also grew 7.453%, and services value added grew 7.453%. These three growth figures are reported by World Bank Data for the same year.
Employment had a different distribution from GDP. Agriculture employment represented 40.241% of total employment in 2025, while services employment represented 41.442%. Female labor force participation was 75.164% in 2025, and the total labor force numbered 6,644,562 people. The unemployment rate was 1.589% in 2025.
Trade in services equaled 41.904% of GDP in 2024. For 2023, exports of goods, services and primary income were $4,511,250,793.36, while imports of goods, services and primary income were $6,189,368,965.60. Those are reported monetary totals for 2023, not 2024 values.
Personal remittances received were $338,542,904.96 in 2023, equal to 1.7% of GDP according to World Bank Data. Foreign direct investment net inflows were 2.5% of GDP in 2024.
Education, poverty and living conditions
The poverty headcount ratio at $6.85 a day was 86.5% in 2021. This is a dated poverty measure with a specified daily threshold; it should not be presented as a current 2024 or 2025 poverty rate.
Adult literacy was 51.380% in 2022. The primary completion rate was 61.642% in 2022. Gross secondary school enrollment was 43.561% in 2022, and gross tertiary enrollment was 10.235% in 2022. Because the enrollment figures are gross rates, they are not the same as the share of an age cohort that completes a level of education.
These education indicators describe different parts of the system. Literacy concerns adults, primary completion concerns completion of primary education, and secondary and tertiary enrollment concern participation at those levels. Each figure is tied to 2022 in the World Bank Data record.
The World Bank Benin overview reports that the Youth Inclusion Project has reached 592,512 beneficiaries. It also states that at least 150,000 people, representing 61% of extremely poor households in the Single Social Register, will benefit from the social safety net program. The first figure is a reported reach to beneficiaries; the second is a stated program target or expected benefit, so the two should not be treated as the same type of result.
Health and demographic indicators
Life expectancy at birth was 60.961 years in 2024 in World Bank Data. The World Bank Benin overview reports life expectancy as 61.2 years in 2024, using a rounded value. World Bank Data also records a fertility rate of 4.48 births per woman in 2024, while the overview reports 5.7 children per woman for that year. The two fertility figures are materially different and are retained here with their source labels rather than being reconciled without additional information.
Under-5 mortality was 74.7 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2024. Maternal mortality was 518 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023. The different denominators and years matter: under-5 mortality and maternal mortality are separate measures and should not be compared as though they used the same unit.
Current health expenditure was 3.337% of GDP in 2023, and current health expenditure per capita was $46.53 in 2023. Hospital-bed availability stood at 0.43 beds per 1,000 people in 2021. Together, these figures describe health spending and capacity at different levels, but they do not measure the quality or availability of a particular medical service.
Infrastructure, energy and environment
Access to electricity covered 57% of the population in 2023. Internet use reached 33.984% of the population in 2024. These measures are from different years, and neither should be interpreted as a current 2025 access rate.
Renewable energy consumption was 54.5% of total final energy consumption in 2021. Energy use was 394.575 kilograms of oil equivalent per capita in 2023. The renewable-energy share and per-capita energy-use figure measure different aspects of the energy system: one is a composition share and the other is an amount per person.
Forest area covered 26.473% of land area in 2023. Annual freshwater withdrawals were 0.975% of internal resources in 2022. Benin’s CO2 emissions were 0.5 metric tons per capita in 2024, and CO2 emissions excluding land use, land-use change and forestry were also 0.5 tons of CO2 equivalent per capita in 2024.
Governance and World Bank commitments
Women held 26.606% of seats in Benin’s national parliament in 2025, according to World Bank Data. This is a representation indicator for a specific year and institution; it is not a measure of women’s participation across all public bodies.
The World Bank Benin overview reports World Bank Group commitments in Benin of $3.3 billion. It says those commitments included $3 billion for 16 national projects and $300 million for seven regional projects. The overview also reports that the Youth Inclusion Project reached 592,512 beneficiaries and that the social safety net program was expected to benefit at least 150,000 people, or 61% of extremely poor households in the Single Social Register.
For readers using these statistics alongside travel-document guidance, the key practical distinction is between context and requirements. Population, economic, health, education, infrastructure and governance statistics help describe Benin at the country level. They do not establish passport validity rules, visa eligibility, border procedures, consular fees or document-processing requirements.