Wealth and Population Data in Africa: National and UN/World Bank estimates of African GDP/capita are seriously flawed

Brian Sturgess

Published: June 2012

There are very good grounds for challenging much of the conventionally accepted UN and World Bank economic data relating to both the absolute and relative per capita income of many African countries and to their growth rates over time. A recent paper by Morton Jerven published in World Economics demonstrated the unreliability of much if not most African GDP data and a new paper published in this issue by Deborah Potts challenges the accuracy of African population estimates"