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Nigeria vs. South Africa

How Nigeria and South Africa compare on income per person, population, life expectancy, internet use, electricity, unemployment, inflation, carbon emissions, health spending and college enrollment, each next to the world figure and linked to its chart, where you'll find its source, its date and every country's numbers.

The biggest differences

  • Carbon dioxide emitted per person is 11.5 times as high in South Africa (6.9 tonnes) as in Nigeria (0.6).
  • The unemployment rate is 29.3 percentage points higher in South Africa (32.4%) than in Nigeria (3.1%).
  • Health spending per person is 8 times as high in South Africa ($537) as in Nigeria ($67.00).

Side by side

Figures are from the World Bank's World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), for the newest year most countries have reported; many are estimates, and they are revised as new data comes in. GDP per person is in US dollars at each year's exchange rates, not adjusted for differences in prices, and so is health spending. Two figures are called about the same when GDP, population, emissions or health spending differ by less than 5%, life expectancy by less than a year, unemployment or inflation by less than 1 percentage point, or another share by less than 2 percentage points.

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