1. Diverging pathsBangladesh and Madagascar

   Bangladesh and Madagascar: similar GDP per person in 1990, 5.2 times apart in 2025

   BangladeshMadagascar

   Output per person a year, in 2021 dollars adjusted for price differences: $2,100 in Bangladesh and $2,000 in Madagascar in 1990; $8,700 and $1,700 in 2025. Bangladesh grew 4.2-fold; Madagascar fell 15%.

   Source: World Bank (WDI, ITU and UNESCO data); UN WPP 2024Open on the chart →

More findings

• Bangladesh now has more people than Russia
• Madagascar: more babies born than in Germany
• Bangladesh: mothers are younger on average than in 1950
• Bangladesh: 292 thousand more people died than usual in 2020–2021; officially 28 thousand died of COVID
• Bangladesh: in 2020–2023 net migration was lower than all 12 UN projections assumed
• Bangladesh’s Awami League in 2008 promised that life expectancy would reach 70 years by 2021. It came to 71.1

All findings →